


Wayfinders

by JCMorrigan



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Adventure, Assumes Aqua Is Saved from the Realm of Darkness, Depictions of Violence Against Enemy Creatures, Multi, Set After a Hypothetical Kingdom Hearts III, The power of friendship, Uses Disney Media That Hasn't Appeared in KH Yet, Will Probably Be Proven Canonically Impossible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-02
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-09 09:22:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 38,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12884868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCMorrigan/pseuds/JCMorrigan
Summary: Should any harm befall the Princesses of Heart, there is a cosmic backup plan. With the Princesses held captive by a mysterious fate, it falls to Master Aqua to awaken seven new women's hearts to take their place. However, wherever Aqua goes, a dangerous enemy with godlike power is close behind.A gift for Tumblr user mal5341. Set after a hypothetical Kingdom Hearts III. May be proven inaccurate by actual Kingdom Hearts III.





	1. Chapter 1

            The night goddess pounded hammer against gold, shaping an elegant circle. With each crash of the hammer, the metal looked more and more like its true shape: a crown.

            She grinned, sharp teeth brushing against lips. Now she truly could call herself a goddess, for it was the power of the divine that she had forged the container for. All that was missing was the crown jewel.

            She took the gem in hand, slowly lowering it into place on the front piece of the crown. It shimmered, a reminder of the immense power that surged within it.

            The crown was cooled; then the night goddess lowered it upon her head. It very nearly surged through her spine as a chill, but she was as of stone, very nearly immune to such excitements. Pragmatically, she was pleased.

            Next, she took her new weapon in hand. Between it and the crown, she saw a wealth of options open up before her. What to do first?

            Give herself a place to call home, she thought. A whole new world, birthed of Darkness, where night would reign eternal.

 

* * *

 

            And it was upon this world that the seven Princesses of Heart faced the night goddess.

            “Stop!” Kairi yelled across the plains of jagged gray stone, where nothing grew beneath a jet-black sky lit only by the moon. “If you keep going this way, you’ll plunge every world into Darkness!”

            “You foolish human!” the night goddess replied. “Don’t you see by now? That is exactly what must happen!”

            “If you don’t give back what you stole,” Jasmine seethed, “we’ll have to take it from you.”

            “We’ve already watched you ruin too many of our worlds,” Cinderella added. “We’re going to fix what you destroyed.”

            “It’s only destruction to you,” the night goddess growled. “To me, your worlds ARE being repaired! Once the Darkness takes over, I will finally have what I deserve!”

            Kairi didn’t wait to hear a word more. Her Keyblade shimmered into her hand, and she gripped it tightly, rushing at the night goddess.

            Immense stalagmites erupted from the ground beneath her feet; she leapt and twisted to avoid being impaled. With a flick of her wrist, Kairi sent the Keyblade spinning through the air, buzzing toward the night goddess. The night goddess was struck and reeled, somersaulting head over heels in the air, having a mind to hold the crown tightly against her hair so as not to lose one of the sources of her power. The Keyblade spun back around to land in Kairi’s hand as the night goddess straightened up, keeping to the skies.

            Jasmine rushed to Kairi’s side, clutching the spear she’d taken from the Agrabah armory, and she and Kairi shared a nod before the pair leapt into the air.

            The night goddess flicked her free hand at Jasmine; a creature that could have been mistaken for a tiger if not for the distinct emblem on its chest sprang at the raven-haired princess and tackled her to the ground. As Jasmine grappled with the beast, spear versus claws, Kairi kept on her course, swinging the Keyblade.

            This time, the night goddess was ready. She parried the Keyblade with her weapon before turning the weapon’s point on Kairi. Kairi was by that point falling back toward the ground; as soon as the girl’s sneakers hit the stone, the weapon fired. Kairi dodged it neatly.

            The night goddess became aware of a blast of magic heading in her direction just in time to evade it, letting it graze her cheek. She turned her gaze upon Cinderella, who pointed the wand that her Fairy Godmother had lent to her for the battle directly at the night goddess.

            “You think that pitiful fairy magic can stand against the power of gods?” the night goddess challenged, turning her weapon against Cinderella. She sailed backward through the air as Kairi tried a leap; Kairi’s Keyblade bit empty air. As Kairi descended, the next burst of magic from Cinderella sailed over her head; a more powerful beam of magic from the night goddess’ weapon collided with the twinkling ray, neutralizing it.

            “What should we do?” Snow White asked Belle, Aurora, and Alice, who remained unarmed with her far behind the battle line.

            “We have to use our light to stop her,” Belle said confidently.

            “But we’re only four,” Aurora pointed out. “Will it work?”

            “I’ve seen stranger and more impossible things,” Alice reminded her.

            The four joined hands: Snow to Belle, Belle to Aurora, Aurora to Alice. Each sought deep within her for the light that resided within.

            Jasmine’s spear struck directly upward through the heart of the tiger; it crumbled into its true form and left her free to leap back into the fray. She rushed behind the night goddess, waiting for an opening.

            Kairi leapt again; the night goddess easily parried the Keyblade once more. Instead of letting Kairi fall, however, the night goddess seized Kairi’s chin in hand, raising her up to look her in the eye. Kairi let out a cry; the night goddess simply smiled.

            “You are a fool,” she taunted, her voice low and cold. “You think you have mastered the Keyblade. But you are only a CHILD.”

            Kairi made to swing the blade again, but the night goddess threw Kairi toward the forest of stalagmites, where she would surely be impaled.

            “NO!” Cinderella turned her wand upon Kairi, levitating the redhead before she could fall prey to a sharp landing. She gently guided Kairi to safer ground, letting her down gently.

            As Cinderella’s attention was diverted, the night goddess fired her weapon once more. Cinderella was struck, and the others could see in horror that her part in the battle was done.

            “NO!” Kairi yelled, gearing up for another charge.

            “Novice!” the night goddess snapped, readying her weapon for another strike. It was then that her eyes fell upon Belle, Aurora, Alice, and Snow White, all of whom radiated with bright light.

            “So you thought you would be clever?” she taunted. The ground rose up beneath Belle and Alice’s feet, propelling them upward on stone pillars and breaking the bond. The light that had charged between the four surged toward the night goddess all the same, and it struck; however, it only caused the night goddess to shudder in mild discomfort. “Only FOUR of you?” she called back. “How pathetic. Even you should have known that wouldn’t work!”

            She rose high into the air, swooping down over Kairi and away from Jasmine. Her weapon aimed first at Belle, then Alice, striking both and taking them out of play.

            “AURORA!” Kairi yelled. “SNOW! RUN! GET HELP – “

            The night goddess cut both Aurora and Snow White down as they attempted to turn and run for their ship.

            Kairi had had enough. She charged at full speed, rashly thinking only of bringing down her foe and not taking into account that the exact same move had failed her already in this fight. The night goddess landed on the ground, beckoning Kairi to come near. Kairi slashed to the left, to the right, from the top down –

            Each time, the blade was caught by the shaft of the night goddess’ weapon.

            Jasmine watched, waiting. She knew the source of the night goddess’ prowess came from the weapon she clutched and the piece upon her head. To remove both would be a near-impossible feat, but Jasmine knew she at the very least had a chance of disarming her of the crown. She took aim carefully with the spear.

            The shaft of the weapon struck Kairi in the stomach, causing her to reel back. Its end slammed into Kairi’s head, further disorienting her. Finally, the point pressed into her stomach, tempting the night goddess to simply run Kairi through. Yet all she did was as she had done to her previous five victims: take her safely out of play, leaving a trophy the night goddess could look upon for eternity.

            Jasmine knew it was a last-ditch effort. The spear sailed through the air, hurtling right toward the golden crown with its green gem.

            The night goddess caught the shaft of the spear deftly, the point a hair’s breadth from the crown. As her grip tightened, the spear snapped in two, crashing to the stone. “I’m almost impressed,” the night goddess admitted.

            She turned her weapon upon Jasmine.

            Jasmine didn’t stand a chance.

 

* * *

 

            Master Aqua was generally cool under pressure. Being summoned for an audience with the powerful was a common occurrence for her, now that she was both a Keyblade Master and freed of the Realm of Darkness. She had spoken with everyone from Ansem the Wise to King Mickey, and though she had paid them the proper respect, those had seemed like little more than meetings with good old friends.

            Yet there was something about the spiral stairways and cosmically patterned furnishings of Yen Sid’s tower that gave her a sense of intimidation. As she climbed those very stairways and admired those very stars and moons, she was aware that she was stepping into the domain of powerful old magic. And a summons from Yen Sid was not to be taken lightly in any circumstance.

            As she approached the uppermost door of the tower, marked by its golden sigil of a sorcerer’s hat, she raised her fist and gave the wood a firm knock. She was rewarded with a deep voice commanding her to “Come in, come in.”

            Aqua pushed open the door to find Yen Sid seated at his desk, waving her gracefully inside with a hand. She let the door swing shut as she strode forward, giving a respectful bow. “Master Yen Sid,” she greeted.

            Yen Sid nodded his own head. “Master Aqua.”

            “I received your summons,” Aqua told him. “Is something wrong?” She hoped, deep down, that he had only called her so that they could have tea and discuss the intricacies of magic, the study of which she had thrown herself into all the more since escaping the Realm of Darkness.

            “I am afraid gravely so,” Yen Sid responded.

            Aqua nodded, her lips pursed as she braced to hear what Yen Sid had to say.

            “I am sure you heard the reports of the terror that has befallen several worlds as of late,” Yen Sid began. “Day giving way to night, uncontrollable storms beating upon kingdoms for days without end, and worst of all, the rise of the new creatures. The ones that bear this sigil.” He held out a hand, palm up, and an illusion of the suspicious symbol appeared above it. It was not the mark of the Heartless, the Nobodies, the Unversed, or the Nightmares. Instead, it resembled a heart that had been cleft in two jaggedly, one side sliding down away from the other.

            Aqua nodded. “I had heard the reports. The Dwarven Woodlands, Beast’s Castle, Agrabah…”

            “Many of these worlds were near and dear to the Princesses of Heart,” Yen Sid explained. “When a new world was discovered, Kairi proposed to me that we summon the other six princesses in order to dispatch them to this world and determine whether this world was connected to the new blight upon the other worlds. I fear they have in fact proven a connection. The stars have informed me that the Princesses of Heart, all seven of them, are gone.”

            Aqua was taken aback, a light gasp rushing into her lungs. “Gone? They’re…”

            “No, they have not perished,” Yen Sid clarified quickly. “Their hearts have been immobilized, trapped in a state from which they are unable to return on their own. This much I know, and no more.”

            “Then I’ll find them,” Aqua resolved. “I’ll travel to this new world myself, and I’ll free them from whatever is holding them.”

            “First of all,” Yen Sid rebutted, “I fear even with your skill, you would be overpowered by whomever our enemy reveals themselves to be. The seven Princesses of Heart together could not defeat this new threat, and Cinderella in particular was armed with powerful fairy magic. You will need allies.”

            “Terra,” Aqua suggested. “Ven. Sora!” She stopped herself. “But you were about to say more, weren’t you?”

            “Indeed I was,” Yen Sid confirmed, “for there is a second, more concerning matter.”

            “I apologize for the interruption,” Aqua said solemnly.

            “No need,” Yen Sid told her. “With the Princesses of Heart missing, the worlds have lost a key component to the balance between Light and Darkness. Should this loss become permanent, every world will be in great danger. Luckily, there is a solution. One might call it a ‘contingency plan.’ It has happened in ages long past, and if I am not mistaken, it is happening as we speak.

            “If the Princesses of Heart become lost to the worlds, seven new women will be chosen to take their place, either temporarily or permanently. Due to the sudden nature of the transfer, these women will not know of the power they wield, and in fact shall not be true Princesses of Heart, even in substitute, unless they are awakened by the Heart of their World. As the Princesses of Heart were also the only seven people in existence to naturally bear no Darkness within their hearts, the substitute princesses shall not be pure of heart. However, they shall have STRENGTH of heart. They will have battled and overcome their own Darknesses, and be in the favor of the Light. Assembled, they will be able to open the Door to Darkness, and so much more.

            “Master Aqua, I have summoned you here tonight because I believe it is you who is best suited to finding these seven women and awakening their hearts. Parts of your journey will be long, and parts will be short. Nevertheless, you will locate all seven of them in time. They will undoubtedly become your allies, and once your quest to gather them has ended, you will have the choice of either taking them or your kin in Keyblade wielding to the new world to defeat our enemy.”

            “What if I take them there,” Aqua asked, “and they meet the same end as the true seven?”

            “I cannot say,” Yen Sid answered. “Perhaps it will truly mean the end of the Princesses of Heart. But perhaps seven more will be chosen in their stead, and the cycle will repeat.”

            Aqua nodded. “I think I understand. All I have to do is find each new princess and guide her to the Heart of her World. But how will I find them?”

            “You still have the charm you share with Terra and Ventus, do you not?” Yen Sid asked.

            Aqua needed only a moment to produce the Wayfinder from her pocket. “Yes,” she said as she held the star-shaped charm out toward Yen Sid.

            “May I?” Yen Sid extended his own hand.

            “Of course.” Aqua gently placed the Wayfinder charm in his palm.

            Yen Sid hovered his other hand above the charm, muttering under his breath. The Wayfinder shimmered brightly with luminescence. Once the glow had subsided, Yen Sid held the charm back out to Aqua, who took it back. “Your charm will now guide you both to the women you seek and the Hearts of their Worlds,” Yen Sid explained. “All you must do is open your heart and listen. They shall need to do the same.”

            Aqua nodded. “I understand, Master Yen Sid. I won’t let you down.”

            “A word of caution,” Yen Sid warned. “Once our enemy learns of what you are trying to do, you will no doubt be besieged by the strange new creatures that have been plaguing the worlds.”

            “I will be ready,” Aqua said firmly. She gave a bow, and Yen Sid returned the nod. “Thank you.”

            “May the stars watch over you on your journey,” Yen Sid told Aqua in earnest.

            With that, Aqua took her leave, making way for her Gummi ship. She looked down at the Wayfinder charm in her hand. “Okay,” she said with a slight smile. “Where do you want me to go?”

            And within, she felt a sense of direction, along with the faintest impression of a world: a hot climate, a cool breeze, the sound of the ocean.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun shone high in a bright blue sky while palm trees and other greenery flourished below. Aqua’s boots sank into soft sand that eventually hardened into firmer earth as she went further inland of the island.

            It wasn’t the Destiny Islands, she knew, but she couldn’t help but be reminded.

            The Wayfinder had assured her that the woman she was looking for was here. As she’d piloted her ship closer to the massive world, the charm had given a sort of pull leading Aqua to exactly the right island where she would need to search. She wondered who this woman would be, imagining a girl not unlike Kairi; after all, Kairi did call the Destiny Islands home, despite Aqua having met her in Radiant Garden.

            The verdure gave way to a view of a bustling village. Aqua smiled as she looked around, watching the people go about their work. Over there, women were hard at work weaving palm fronds into baskets while others climbed the trees high above to gather more fronds. There, a group of children were learning to dance. And there, a man was cooking up roast pork, filling the air with a delightful scent that made Aqua slightly hungry.

            She ventured into the village, drawing some strange looks from the citizens for her style of dress, which differed vastly from that of the village’s inhabitants – a fact Aqua was beginning to regret, as her layers of clothing were not doing her any favors beneath the hot sun. She sought the place where a princess might call home, her eyes at last alighting upon the largest building in the center of the civilization. That must be it, she thought to herself.

            As she walked toward the building, another woman exited it, her eyes meeting Aqua’s. “Can I help you?” the woman asked.

            Aqua nodded. “I’d like to speak to your…” Was “king” the right word for a village so small? “…Leader, please.”

            “You are a traveler,” the woman observed.

            Aqua nodded. “I’ve come a long way. This place seems lovely.”

            “Come with me,” the woman beckoned. “I am the wife of Chief Tui. He is checking up on our daughter Moana, and I was on my way to meet him.” She smiled. “My name is Sina.”

            “I’m Aqua,” Aqua replied. Was this the one? she wondered. Was this the new princess?

            No, the Wayfinder told her. Aqua was looking for someone else.

            “It’s lovely to meet you, Aqua,” Sina said as she began to lead Aqua toward the rest of her family. “What brings you to our island?”

            “I’m looking for someone,” Aqua admitted. “Someone special, who can lead me to the Heart of the World.”

            “That will be difficult,” Sina told her. “At one time, we thought it impossible. But it has been done before.”

            “By who?”

            “By our daughter,” Sina told her. “Moana.”

            Perhaps this “Moana” was the one, Aqua thought.

            Sina waved toward the group of dancing children. A teenage girl stood before them, demonstrating the moves; she was clad in red and white, and her dark, curly hair cascaded down her back. Beside them, a muscular man bearing many jet-black tattoos and bearing a tall headdress observed with a smile. Once he and the girl caught sight of Sina, they waved right back.

            The moment Aqua looked to Moana, she knew this girl was the one she had come for.

            “Chief Tui?” Aqua approached the man.

            “Yes?” Tui answered, looking Aqua up and down. “You are…a visitor.”

            “Yes,” Aqua said with a nod. “I am. I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

            “That depends on what it is,” Tui told her.

            “Well, actually…” Aqua looked over to Moana. “From what I’ve heard, I think it’s actually your daughter who can help me.”

            “Huh?” Moana turned to look at Aqua, halting her dance. She then looked back to the children, telling them, “I think that’s enough practice for today. You’re all doing so well!”

            The kids scattered. Aqua smiled at Moana, who gave her a smile in return. Yes, Aqua realized, this was definitely the one.

            “I’m not sure I understand,” Tui told Aqua.

            Moana stepped closer to the conversation. “What do you think I can help with?” she asked. “Wait, I’m sorry. I didn’t catch your name.”

            “My name is Aqua,” Aqua introduced.

            “And I am Moana,” Moana said confidently, proudly. “Chief-in-training of Motonui.”

            “It’s nice to meet you,” Aqua replied. “I hear you’re an accomplished sailor.”

            “Actually,” Moana corrected, “around here, we call it ‘wayfinding.’ But you could call me a bit of a master wayfinder.”

            A wayfinder, Aqua thought. That was a stroke of fate at work. “I’m looking for someone who can guide me to the Heart of the World,” she stated. “And a little beyond that.”

            “You want to go to the mother island?” Moana replied, in slight shock. “You want to go to Te Fiti.” She shook her head, regaining composure. “No problem! I’ve been there before, all right. Yup, I sure have been there! …Once. But I could do it again!”

            “How far beyond Te Fiti would you and Moana be going?” Tui asked.

            “To tell you the truth, I don’t know,” Aqua admitted. “It may end up being a very long voyage.” She wasn’t sure if the people of this village, Motonui, were aware of other worlds or not, and didn’t want to risk telling them more than she had to for fear of not being believed.

            “This all sounds very strange,” Tui told her. “Why do you want to reach Te Fiti?”

            “Because…” Aqua couldn’t dance around this. “I’m afraid there is a terrible Darkness that threatens to conquer this world. I think I know how to fix it, but in order to do that, I need to reach the Heart of the World. I know that must sound strange.”

            “That sounds like something that’s happened before,” Moana realized. “When I sailed to Te Fiti. Someone had stolen her heart, and the Darkness started overtaking the islands. Our coconuts became diseased, there were no fish in our traps, monsters drove our boats out of the ocean – “

            “I don’t want that to happen to you again,” Aqua said. “That’s why I want to go to the Heart of the World to stop things before they get worse.” Though something Moana had said stuck with her: could the Heart of this World, in fact, be stolen?

            “I can take you!” Moana insisted.

            “Moana,” Tui said sternly.

            “Please?” Moana begged. “Pleasepleaseplease? I know the way! We’ll be back before you know it!”

            “I don’t trust this,” Tui said as he looked upon Aqua. “Something here is suspicious.”

            “Dad, I can take care of myself,” Moana urged. “Can I please go with her? It sounds like she really, REALLY needs my help.”

            “Is this because you want to help her,” Tui asked, “or because you want to go back out on the ocean?”

            “Both?” Moana confessed.

            Tui thought it over, looking to Sina. At last, he told Moana, “You may go. But be careful. Know when to come home.”

            “I will!” Moana promised.

            “Good luck,” Sina added.

            Moana’s attention was brought to a soft “cluck-cluck-cluck”; Aqua was startled when she felt the peck of a bird’s beak upon her boots. Both looked down to see a multicolored rooster beginning to attempt to eat Aqua’s footwear.

            “Ohhhhhh, no,” Moana told the chicken, lifting him up and handing him off to Sina. “You’re not going with us this time, Heihei.”

            “Buck?” Heihei tilted his head.

            “Mom, Dad,” Moana said, “if you could do me a favor and keep Heihei here…at home…where he belongs, and he can’t get in the ocean’s way…”

            “We will,” Sina promised.

            “Come on!” Moana gestured for Aqua to follow as she took off running. “This way!”

            Aqua smiled as she broke into a sprint after Moana. The girl led her to a cave that widened out vastly, one wall formed by a torrent of falling water. Boats of all shapes and sizes were tucked away in the waterfall-bordered cavern, and Aqua found herself staring at the variety of them all.

            “We should only need a small one,” Moana muttered. “Here. This one!” She began to adjust the sail on a tiny boat.

            “How can I help?” Aqua asked.

            Moana guided Aqua through the process of getting the boat ready to be seaworthy. “You can’t wayfind?” Moana asked.

            “No,” Aqua admitted.

            “Then how’d you get here?” Moana pressed.

            “It’s a long story,” Aqua answered.

            Moana could tell Aqua was surrounded by mysteries. How did she know there was a Darkness coming? Where was she from? Why couldn’t she wayfind? Hopefully, she thought, she could unravel some of these mysteries over the course of their voyage.

            The boat was set to sea, and Aqua and Moana endured the splash of the waterfall down upon their heads as they sailed out. Aqua looked up at the sky to note the onset of the sunset; bright red spilled across the heavens. She smiled; for better or for worse, red sunsets would always make her think of Lea. “Maybe I should have picked a better time,” she said. “The sun’s going down.”

            “Actually, the stars make wayfinding easier,” Moana explained. “They can show you where you’re going and where you’ve been. I can show you some of the basics, if you’d like.”

            “I would like that,” Aqua admitted. “Though first, I think I’d like to hear some more about you. What happened the first time you sailed out to the Heart of the World?”

            “Well, it actually all started a thousand years ago,” Moana answered. “I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s true. See, the demigod Maui thought he would become more popular with humans if he gave them the power to create life, so…”

 

* * *

 

            Moana’s story took enough time that she and Aqua were well out to sea and into the night by the time she wrapped it up. “And that’s how Maui and I saved the world,” Moana concluded.

            “You’re incredibly brave,” Aqua complimented. “You undertook a great journey.”

            “Well, I’m guessing you’re pretty brave, too,” Moana told her, “since you came all this way to stop a new Darkness. All right. I’ve told you my story. What’s yours?”

            “My story would take even longer than yours,” Aqua admitted. “But first, I want to explain something to you. Something about why I’m here and why I asked for your help. It wasn’t just about Te Fiti. It’s also about you.”

            “About me?” Moana replied, surprised.

            “Yes,” Aqua told her. “In order to understand me, you have to understand something about where I came from.” She looked up to the sky above, diamond-glittering upon jet black. “Look at the stars.”

            “Okay,” Moana said as she craned her head upward. “What am I looking for?”

            “Just the stars,” Aqua told her. “Do you know what you’re looking at?”

            “I think we established that it’s the stars.”

            “It’s more than that,” Aqua explained. “Each of those stars is a whole other world. Just like the sea connects all of the islands, the sky connects all of the worlds. And I’m from one of them.”

            Moana, at first, was struck silent. This had to be some kind of story, she thought. But then again, that was what everyone had said about her grandmother Tala’s tales of Maui and Te Fiti. “Are you serious?” she asked softly.

            “Yes,” Aqua answered. “Very serious. I wasn’t chosen by the ocean the way you were, but I know a lot of powerful forces that let me know what’s going on in the worlds. The Darkness I mentioned isn’t just coming for your world. It’s already happened to a few others. Entire worlds have been swallowed in a neverending night, and monsters are running wild.

            “There were seven women with pure hearts, completely Light with no Darkness. They found out what was turning the worlds to Darkness, and they set out to stop it. But something happened to them. They’re not dead, but they’re trapped somehow in a way that they can’t come back. These women were important to all the worlds, and we can’t go without them for too long. Without them, seven more will be chosen to take their place, just for a little while. It’s kind of hard to explain, but I’ll try.”

            “Are you one of them?” Moana asked. “One of the replacements?”

            “No,” Aqua told her. “I’m not. But you are.”

            “How do you know?” Moana asked.

            Aqua produced the Wayfinder. “This charm. It lets me know.”

            Moana looked to the Wayfinder reverently.

            “It’s actually called a Wayfinder charm,” Aqua informed her. “It’s kind of a happy coincidence. Or maybe it’s fate.”

            “Okay, you cannot be serious about all of this,” Moana said doubtfully. “Are you…?” She looked out over the edge of the boat, toward the ocean. “Is she…?”

            Aqua looked in the same direction as Moana. She could make out a swell of the ocean, one that almost took on the shape of a head, nodding nearly imperceptibly.

            “You ARE!” Moana looked back to Aqua. “You’re telling the truth! It’s all real!” She gasped as realization sank in. “So that means…you want to take me to these other worlds with you?”

            Aqua nodded. “To look for the other six new Princesses of Heart.”

            “And then rescue the old ones?”

            “I don’t know,” Aqua told Moana. “It’s a bit of a risk. If something happens to you, there might not be any more Princesses of Heart left.”

            “But someone still has to try,” Moana urged. “Now that I know, I can’t just sit back while these other princesses – which, by the way, I am not – are in danger! I do mean it, though. I might be one of the people you’re looking for, but I am NOT a princess.”

            “The definition gets a little fuzzy,” Aqua admitted, thinking of Alice. “Anyway, that’s a decision we can make later. The first thing we have to do is bring you to the Heart of the World so we can awaken you as a new Prin – as one of the new seven.”

            “That’s why Te Fiti,” Moana muttered to herself.

            “Every world has a heart,” Aqua explained. “Though this one sounds unique compared to all the others.”

            “I’m…really sorry.” Moana turned back out to the ocean. “Are you SURE I can trust her?”

            The ocean gave Moana another affirmative.

            As Moana looked back to Aqua, Aqua told her, “Don’t worry. I’m not offended. This must sound like an unbelievable story.”

            “I want to know the whole thing,” Moana urged. “Everything about you, and how you started traveling between worlds.”

            “Well, if you want to go back that far,” Aqua told her, “then I’ll have to start by explaining this.” She held out her hand; the Keyblade shimmered into solidification in such a way that she could easily grip it.

            “WHOA!” Moana staggered back and nearly fell off the boat. “What IS that?”

            “This is a Keyblade,” Aqua explained. “It’s a special weapon…well, maybe it’s more like a tool. It has the power to save entire worlds…and also to destroy them.”

            “Tell me EVERYTHING,” Moana begged.

            “All right.” Aqua shrugged. “I used to study the Keyblade along with my two best friends on our homeworld.”

            This story took Aqua and Moana all the way through the night and into the morning.

* * *

 

            A few more sunrises and sunsets occurred before the little boat got close to Te Fiti. Aqua thought back to what Yen Sid had said about parts of her journey being long, and figured that this must have been what he had meant.

            All along the way, Moana had been showing Aqua the literal ropes and other tidbits about wayfinding, educating her in how to guide a boat through the ocean. “Now,” she said, “in exchange, I want to learn how to drive one of YOUR ships. The…” She struggled to recall the name. “Gummi ships.”

            “That can definitely be arranged,” Aqua told Moana.

            The sun had finished rising, and Aqua and Moana had polished off a breakfast of coconut meat. Moana sat back, letting Aqua take control of the boat for a little while. “You’re doing great!” Moana encouraged.

            “I’m a little nervous I’ll tip the boat over,” Aqua laughed.

            The boat lurched.

            “I…might already be doing that,” Aqua said with trepidation.

            “I don’t think that was you,” Moana told her. She cast her gaze out over the waters. “Ocean? Were you playing a joke? Because it wasn’t funny.”

            The boat rocked again, more violently.

            “Really NOT funny,” Moana insisted.

            “Moana,” Aqua said nervously, “I don’t think – “

            She was cut off by the sudden emergence of two great reptilian heads from the water, extending upwards on long necks that joined over a single chest. The dragonlike mouths roared at the small boat the creature dwarfed.

            “AQUA!” Moana screamed.

            Aqua gritted her teeth, glaring at the creature’s chest. The sigil Yen Sid had shown her, that of the broken heart, was imprinted clearly across its deep green skin in a darker green shade. “It’s one of the creatures of Darkness!” Aqua cried.

            “Which ones?” Moana yelled. “The Heartless? The Unversed?”

            “No,” Aqua told her, “one of the new ones!”

            The twin mouths snapped, diving downward toward the boat.

            “NO!” Aqua called up her Keyblade, striking the tongue that threatened to gobble her up.

            At the same time, Moana ripped an oar off the side of the boat and gave the other head’s tongue a firm smack.

            The sea monster recoiled, screeching piercingly. It rose both of its heads to full height.

            “I have to get up to meet it on its level!” Aqua told Moana. “How strong are you?”

            “I think I know what you’re thinking!” Moana replied.

            Aqua and Moana joined hands. The two spun in a circle before Moana put all her strength into a throw; Aqua propelled herself upward in a jump, aided by Moana’s assistance. Aqua rocketed upward into the air, pirouetting, Keyblade spinning round and round with her like a helicopter’s propeller as she cried “HEEEEYAAAAAH!”

            One of the sea monster’s heads was sliced from its body, plummeting down into the waters. The other head screeched in agony. Aqua grabbed ahold of its neck, keeping her grip tight as the neck writhed.

            A massive claw protruded from the water, threatening to slam the boat down into the depths. “NO!” Moana bellowed, striking at the claw with her oar. “NO, NO, NO, NO, NO!”

            The monster’s foot recoiled, sinking back beneath the surface.

            Aqua tried to scale the monster’s neck, but it undulated far too violently for her to ascend. The monster tried to swivel its head around to bite her, but she was quite far up the neck; the jaws could only reach below her.

            Moana observed the stalemate Aqua and the monster had gotten themselves into. An idea occurred to her, but she knew quite well it would only work if she and Aqua were on the same page. “HEY!” she yelled. “YOU WANT SOMETHING EASY TO EAT? COME DOWN AND GET ME!”

            The monster’s attention was caught; it struck downward. Aqua pushed off the back of the monster’s head to leap into the air, repositioning herself with the Keyblade below her body as she fell.

            Moana hurled herself off the boat, splashing into the water on the opposite side from the monster. She surfaced just in time to see Aqua do exactly what she’d set up for: as the monster’s jaws snapped above the boat, Aqua’s blade rammed down into its remaining head from above, impaling it.

            The monster went still. Then its entire body lost its green color, taking on the texture and gray color of granite. As soon as the transformation was complete, the monster’s body splintered into shards and dust, scattering across the ocean; the rocks that had once been the second head rolled off the boat and into the waters.

            “It just…shattered?” Moana said in disbelief as she clambered back onto the boat.

            “It’s like it was stone the whole time,” Aqua remarked. “Just…brought to life.”

            “Well, the whole shattering thing is kind of fitting,” Moana realized, “because that mark on it looked kind of like a shattered heart.”

            “Shattered,” Aqua repeated. “Perhaps that’s their name after all. I had been wondering what to call them. They can be the Shattered.” She looked to Moana. “Thank you for setting me up for that last strike. You’re a quick thinker.”

            “And you are really something with that blade,” Moana complimented back.

            “We make a good team,” Aqua confirmed.

 

* * *

 

            At last, Moana announced on one starry night, “We should be within a few hours of Te Fiti.”

            “Good,” Aqua affirmed.

            “So…” Moana asked, “once I’ve been ‘awakened,’ where are you taking me next?”

            “I don’t know,” Aqua told her. “The Wayfinder will answer. But right now, it’s quiet. I think it’s waiting for me to finish things with you before giving me an idea of what’s next.”

            “Tell me more about the worlds you do know about that we might visit,” Moana implored. “If you want to, of course.”

            “I want to,” Aqua stated. “Well, let’s see. There’s the Land of Dragons…”

            They chatted about other worlds until the boat finally came in view of Te Fiti. As Moana cast her gaze to the horizon, she gasped; a soft “Oh no” escaped her lips.

            “What’s wrong?” Aqua asked.

            “Te Fiti,” Moana answered. “I can see her from here. She shouldn’t be standing that tall unless…unless…”

            Aqua was awed by the sight at first. The mother island was actually shaped like an immense woman, standing tall in the ocean. She stared down at her hands in dismay, lightly curling her enormous fingers. To behold the living Heart of the World in goddess form took Aqua’s breath away…but she realized, thinking over Moana’s tale of her first voyage, that Te Fiti’s skin should have been green with vegetation, not gray as stone, and the melancholy look upon Te Fiti’s face was unusual.

            “I think she’s on her way to becoming…” Moana couldn’t say it. Aqua knew the words: Te Ka.

            “But that would only happen if someone…” Aqua couldn’t finish her own sentence. Both knew what had occurred.

            Te Fiti’s heart had been robbed of her once again.

            Te Fiti noticed the boat approaching at last, giving its passengers the same sad glance she’d given her own empty hands. Upon her chest, there glowed in bright orange the outline of a spiral; magma threatened to break through. It was clear there was nothing at the spiral’s center.

            “WHO DID THIS TO YOU?” Moana yelled up to Te Fiti. “WHO STOLE YOUR HEART?”

            Te Fiti just shook her head.

            “It couldn’t have been Maui, could it?” Aqua suggested.

            “He wouldn’t,” Moana told her. “Not again. I wonder if it’s the same person who’s been spreading the Darkness to those other worlds. Because without Te Fiti and her heart, the same thing will happen to ours.” She faced Te Fiti once more. “I AM SO SORRY!” she cried.

            “MOTHER ISLAND!” Aqua added. “I’M SORRY TOO!”

            “CAN I TALK TO YOU?” Moana called up.

            Te Fiti lowered a shaking hand; Moana stepped into it. The mother island raised Moana high, high enough to meet her face level, and leaned her head forward. Moana pressed her forehead against Te Fiti’s now stony one, and both inhaled. Then Moana spoke words that were inaudible to Aqua down below:

            “I will find the person who did this to you and bring you back your heart, the same way I did before. I promise that. But you have to remember what I said to you. They may have stolen the heart from inside you…but that does not define you.”

            Slowly, ever so slowly, Te Fiti nodded.

            “I know who you are,” Moana told her. “You will always be the mother island. Even without your heart.”

            Te Fiti’s lips curved into a weak smile. She then lowered Moana to the level of the spiral on her chest.

            “What are you doing?” Moana asked, but she got no answer.

            Aqua watched raptly as a new design took its place superimposed over the spiral: a bright orange Keyhole. “Even without her heart,” Aqua realized out loud, “she’s still the Heart of this World.”

            “What…?” Moana looked at the outline of the Keyhole, absorbing it into her mind. A rush of calm came over her: a tranquility that called to mind the gentle lapping of the waters against the shore when there were no storms. Then a feeling Moana could only call ethereal: as though all of the worlds had aligned around Moana’s own heart, teasing their existence to her, and Te Fiti, while holding Moana in the palm of her hand, was also taking Moana’s hand, leading her through an unknown starscape.

            Only Aqua could see the faint glow of light that radiated off Moana’s skin. “She’s awakened,” she realized.

            Te Fiti set Moana down on the tiny boat, giving the boat enough of a push to set it back out on the water.

            “WAIT!” Moana called. “WHAT ABOUT YOUR HEART? WHO TOOK IT? WHERE ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GO?”

            Te Fiti simply smiled a smile that was weighted by melancholy as she became smaller and smaller against the horizon.

            “What do you think?” Aqua asked.

            “I think she wants us to go on the journey to the other worlds,” Moana answered. “We’ll find the answer we’re looking for along the way. I just…hope she’s going to be okay.”

            “We’ll find her heart,” Aqua promised.

            Moana turned away from Te Fiti, feeling unsure. “So…what’s next?”

            Aqua withdrew the Wayfinder, which tingled in her hand. She was once again given the impression of a new world. “We find the next one of the seven,” she announced. “And for that, we’ll have to sail back to my ship.”

            At that, Moana brightened. “I can’t wait to see what’s out there.”

            Aqua gave her a grin. “I can’t wait to show you.”


	3. Chapter 3

Moana shivered, running her left hand up and down her right forearm – the other carried her oar, just in case - as she and Aqua walked down the streets of a colorful kingdom lined with square wooden houses. “It’s so cold,” she remarked.

            Aqua nodded. She didn’t think the temperature was so bad, but for someone who had spent her whole life in the tropics, it must have been jarring, she knew. “It’s definitely not like your island.”

            “Not at all,” Moana affirmed. “Look at everything. It’s so…where are all the trees? The flowers?”

            “The people here must have decided to devote the space to putting homes closer together than making room for things to grow,” Aqua mused. “I’m guessing you don’t like it.”

            “I didn’t say that,” Moana corrected. “I do like it. The houses are so colorful! And look at THAT!” She pointed ahead, to the castle toward which she and Aqua were headed: a blue-gabled stone bastion surrounded by a high wall. “That’s amazing!”

            “And it’s where we’re going to find the next Princess of Heart,” Aqua stated confidently.

            “Still not a princess,” Moana sighed.

            “Sorry,” Aqua responded. “I’ll just say the seven.”

            “Eh, if it slips out, it slips out,” Moana decided, though she did appreciate Aqua’s effort to correct herself.

            Aqua worried that, given the presence of the wall, the royal family might be averse to visitors. She was pleasantly surprised to find the gates thrown wide open for people to come and go to and from the courtyard as they pleased. She and Moana entered, the latter fixing her eyes up on the castle’s towers and gaping.

            “Hi there!” a voice said from lower to the ground.

            Aqua and Moana looked down in unison to behold a peculiar sight: a snowman, perhaps two feet tall, waving up at them with a stick arm. Both were taken aback, unsure how to respond.

            “My name is Olaf,” the snowman introduced, “and I love warm hugs! I’ve never seen you two before! What are your names?”

            Aqua and Moana exchanged a glance, then a shrug. They’d both seen their fair share of strange creatures. Never a talking snowman, but that might as well have been par for the course for both of them. They knelt in order to speak to Olaf on his level. “My name is Aqua,” Aqua introduced, “and this is Moana.”

            “Uh…hi!” Moana waved.

            “Nice to meet you, Aqua and Moana!” Olaf gushed. “Are you two here to see Anna and Elsa?”

            “Are they the royal family of this kingdom?” Aqua asked.

            It didn’t even occur to Olaf that it was unusual for visitors not to know that already. “Yes, they are!” he told them happily. “Elsa is the queen, and her little sister Anna is the princess! They’re both out skating in the back courtyard if you want to join in! I’ve just been waiting out here in case any visitors dropped by so I could tell them.”

            Princess Anna, Aqua thought. That must be who she was looking for…unless it was actually Queen Elsa who was the next of the seven. “Can you take us to them?” Aqua asked.

            “Sure!” Olaf bounced on his way to the next courtyard. “Come on, come on!”

            Aqua and Moana straightened up and walked after him, finding it hard not to smile at his infectious energy.

            A sizeable portion of the rear courtyard had been completely frozen over. Upon it, two women skated in graceful circles. Each was dressed in blue: the younger of the two, a redhead with her hair done up atop her head in a neat bun, was clad in a smart light blue ensemble while the elder, her white-blonde braid falling down over her shoulder, bore a gown of navy-blue velvet with a fur collar. A blond man clothed in a gray tunic watched them from the sidelines, a tall reindeer standing at his side.

            “Come on, Kristoff!” the younger woman called out as Olaf, Aqua, and Moana approached. “It’s really fun!”

            “I already told you,” the man, Kristoff, responded. “I don’t skate.”

            “Ice is your life,” the woman groaned, “and you can’t SKATE?”

            “I didn’t say I can’t skate!” Kristoff argued. “I said I DON’T skate!”

            “Anna, leave him alone,” the older woman laughed. “We can just have fun without him.”

            “Okay,” the redhead, Anna, relented. “But you should know Sven thinks you’re missing out.” She then adopted a deep, silly tone of voice: “That’s right, Kristoff! I think you should go skate with your girlfriend!”

            “You and I both know Sven did not and would not say that,” Kristoff responded with a grin.

            “Anna!” Olaf called out. “Elsa! Visitors came, so I brought them out back here!”

            “Visitors?” the older woman, Elsa repeated, coming to a halt to look at Aqua and Moana.

            Anna skated right up to the edge of the ice, where Aqua and Moana awaited. “Hi!” she greeted. “It’s so nice to meet you!” She extended her right hand to the pair. As first Aqua, then Moana, shook her hand, she explained, “I’m Princess Anna, though you probably already know that. That’s my sister Elsa, the one who’s being a stick in the mud is my boyfriend Kristoff, and the reindeer is Sven. And you’ve already met Olaf! Hey, do you two want to come out and skate with us while we talk about what you came for?”

            “Anna,” Elsa said with a gentle shake of her head as she followed her sister to the ice’s edge, “we should hear them out before we just force them onto the ice.” She extended her own hand for both Aqua and Moana to shake. “Please, introduce yourselves.”

            “My name is Aqua,” Aqua told her.

            “And I’m Moana!” Moana added.

            “And I wouldn’t mind coming out to skate with you,” Aqua admitted, “but we don’t have any skates.”

            “I can fix that,” Elsa said with a sly grin. She flicked a hand at Aqua’s feet.

            Aqua felt herself raised from the ground by an inch and put slightly off balance; she sat down to investigate. Skating blades had been attached to the bottom of each of her boots; instead of metal, the blades were composed of thin, transparent ice. “That’s very creative magic,” she complimented.

            “Now, how about you?” Elsa asked Moana.

            “I’ve never been skating before,” Moana told her. “If you can help me out with the shoes, I’ll give it a shot!”

            Elsa flicked both hands at Moana’s feet, encasing them in soft blue boots with icy blades protruding from the bottoms.

            Aqua had stood and taken off out onto the ice, gracefully pirouetting before performing a Biellmann spin. “Wow!” Anna congratulated. “You’re a natural!”

            As Moana set her oar aside and tottered out onto the ice, Elsa said gently, “Now, since this is your first time, it’s okay to take it slow – “

            “I got this,” Moana interrupted, sounding more confident than she was. She attempted to take a step forward, slipped, and crashed face-first onto the ice, hair spilling about her head. “I’m okay!” she assured.

            As she lifted her head, she saw Elsa extending a hand. “Here,” Elsa offered. “I’ll help you, if you want.”

            “I might actually need more help than I thought,” Moana admitted, taking Elsa’s hand.

            Elsa helped Moana into a standing position, professionally placing a hand on each of Moana’s shoulders from behind. “Keep one foot pressed against the ice,” she advised, “and slide the other forward instead of taking a step.” Slowly, Moana glid over the ice with Elsa as support. “There you go!”

            “I’m doing it!” Moana cried with joy.

            “Ready to go on your own?” Elsa asked.

            “I think so,” Moana replied.

            Elsa let go of Moana, skating around to meet Aqua. “So,” she said once she had both Aqua and Moana fixed in her sights, “what did you want to talk to us about?”  
            “Building a new school?” Anna guessed. “No, wait, opening up a shop! No, wait, you’re from a neighboring kingdom and you’re bringing a proposition for a trade agreement! Or did the candy shop catch on fire? Please tell me the candy shop didn’t catch on fire.”

            “I think the candy shop is safe,” Moana said with a smile.

            Aqua’s hand pressed to the Wayfinder in her pocket. Which one of these women was the one she sought? Who was the next to make up the seven? Was it Anna, or was it Elsa?

            It was both, the Wayfinder signaled, much to Aqua’s surprise.

            “Actually,” Aqua stated, “we came to talk to you about something a little different. Something incredibly important.” She glanced Kristoff’s way. “Something that should probably best be described in private.”

            “With which one of us?” Elsa asked.

            “Both you and Anna,” Aqua answered.

            “BOTH?” Moana said in surprise.

            Aqua nodded. “Both.”

            “I get the hint,” Kristoff said, turning to exit the courtyard.

            “Now, wait a minute!” Anna snapped. “Whatever you have to say to us, you can say to Kristoff!”

            “And Olaf,” Elsa added.

            “Uhhh…” Moana glanced at Aqua.

            “It’s something a little…unbelievable,” Aqua tried to explain.

            “Oh, yeah?” Kristoff challenged, encouraged by Anna’s comment to stay and hear Aqua and Moana out. “Try me.”

            Moana shrugged. “My parents wouldn’t have taken it well, but maybe they will?”

            Aqua inhaled deeply, then sighed. “We’ve come from other worlds to find you.”

            Anna and Elsa both nodded. Then, once it hit them what Aqua had just said, they let out a simultaneous “Wait, what?”

            “It’s true!” Moana insisted. “There are all kinds of other worlds out there! And there’s Light and Darkness in all of them. Usually, the Light is good and the Darkness is bad, but apparently there are some exceptions, so they need to be kept in balance. There were seven women from other worlds who had no Darkness in their hearts, and they were really important to keeping that balance and protecting the worlds, but something bad happened to them and they disappeared. So now Aqua and I are looking for seven people to replace them. We don’t have hearts without Darkness, but we have STRONG hearts. We thought one of you would be one of them, but it turns out BOTH of you are! And now we need you to come with us to find the other four so we can protect the worlds – “ She swung a fist excitedly through the air. “And save the lost seven!”

            Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff found themselves speechless. It was Olaf who found his voice first: “So does this mean the cellar really is as scary as I think it is? It’s pretty dark.”

            “It’s not that kind of Darkness,” Aqua stated.

            “This is…a little hard to take in,” Elsa admitted.

            Anna folded her arms. “You’re from another world? Prove it.”

            “We don’t exactly have the ocean on our side to back us up,” Moana muttered.

            “Hang on,” Kristoff said. “My family used to tell me all kinds of weird stories about the history of Arendelle, and Grand Pabbie mentioned something like this once. He talked about travelers from other worlds who had these…key-shaped swords.”

            “Aqua has one of those!” Moana said excitedly.

            Aqua put up her hand, calling her Keyblade into it. “I think this is what you’re looking for.”

            “I, uh…” Kristoff stared, wide-eyed, at the Keyblade. “I think they’re telling the truth.”

            “Are you serious?” Anna gushed. “You need us to help you save the world? ALL the worlds? Shut up!” Her grin nearly split her face in half.

            “That’s…a big responsibility,” Elsa said nervously. A cold breeze blew across the courtyard; Moana shivered.

            “Sorry,” Elsa said quickly, averting her gaze from Aqua or Moana. “That…happens sometimes.”

            “It’s part of your power, isn’t it?” Aqua realized.

            “Yes,” Elsa confirmed, raising her head back up to look Aqua in the eye.

            “Can you show me more?” Aqua asked.

            “Well…” Elsa spread out her hands, starting them low and raising her arms upward. Ice spiked upward out of the ground, growing and curling into distinct designs. When it settled, two realistic sculptures, one of Aqua and one of Moana, perched upon the icy ground.

            “Careful!” Anna cautioned. “They might come to life, and then we’d have two Aquas and two Moanas and we wouldn’t know which ones were the originals!”

            “These ones won’t come to life,” Elsa laughed. “…I don’t think.”

            “That’s some power!” Moana said in awe.

            “Yeah, well, you should have seen what happened when she was still getting control of it!” Anna gushed. “One time, she plunged our entire kingdom into an eternal winter, and everyone almost froze to death – “

            “ANNA.” Elsa gave her sister a glare.

            “But it’s okay now!” Anna protested. “Because you learned how to accept your powers, and everything’s fine!”

            “Your magic could definitely help us on our journey,” Aqua said with a nod.

            “What do we have to do?” Elsa asked.

            “Come with us to the Heart of the World,” Aqua told her. “Then, if you can, follow us to find the other four of the seven.”

            “Who would be in charge of Arendelle?” Elsa asked.

            “Pick me!” Olaf bounced up and down, waving an arm in the air. “Pick me, pick me! I can be king!”

            “I don’t think so,” Kristoff groaned.

            “Kristoff?” Anna asked. “What do you think?”

            “Well, I’ve never really been in charge of a kingdom before,” Kristoff admitted, “but I’ll do my best. I can’t really mess it up worse than your last boyfriend.”

            Anna skated close enough to Kristoff to deal him a light punch to the arm.

            “But where is the Heart of the World?” Elsa asked.

            Aqua dismissed her Keyblade and withdrew the Wayfinder. “I think I know the way.” She turned and pointed; up over the castle walls, a towering mountain was visible in the distance. “There.”

            “Elsa built a huge ice castle up there all by herself!” Anna chirped. “I bet that’s where we’re going! Let’s hurry up and go! The fate of the worlds depends on us! That still sounds so weird to say. The fate of the WORLDS.”

            Elsa removed the skates from her feet as well as Anna’s, Aqua’s, and Moana’s with a flick of both wrists. “All right. Let’s get going.”

            As Moana stepped off the ice, Kristoff sidled up next to her. “Don’t worry about falling on the ice,” he whispered. “I still can’t skate. You did a lot better than me.”

            The keen-eared Anna cried, “I KNEW it!”

 

* * *

 

            “Are you sure you know how to use that?” Elsa asked Anna as the sisters set out with Aqua and Moana from the castle gates.

            Anna patted the sword that was sheathed at her side. “I have had a lot of time to learn. Last time I went up this mountain, we got rushed by wolves. I wanted to be prepared this time.”

            “Is it just me,” Moana asked, drawing around her the coat that the royal sisters had provided for her, “or is it getting colder?”

            A light snow began to drift down from the now-gray skies above. “Sorry,” Elsa apologized. “I thought I had it under control, but this still happens sometimes when I get nervous. My powers…act up.”

            “You’re nervous?” Moana asked.

            “This world apparently depends on me,” Elsa reminded them. “And not just this world, but places I’ve never seen and people I haven’t met. They need someone who can protect them, and some days, I still get reminded that I can lose control of my powers. What if I’m actually everyone’s doom instead of what saves them?”

            The winds were growing stronger now, and the snow falling harder.

            “You’ll have to accept it,” Aqua told her. “You were chosen, and if you aren’t awakened, we’ll be one short.”

            “But don’t worry,” Anna told her. “You have things under control. You won’t fail.”

            “Then explain this,” Elsa urged, gesturing to the snow piling up on the edges of the street.

            “It’s just a LITTLE snowfall,” Anna told her. “It’s not like the storm from last time. It’ll be okay!”

 

* * *

 

            But as the quartet went higher and higher up the mountain, it became clear that the snowfall was only getting worse and the winds more violent.

            “Cold,” Moana muttered. “Coldcoldcoldcoldcoldcold…”

            “Weren’t there ever snowstorms where you came from?” Anna asked.

            “There wasn’t SNOW where I came from,” Moana told her.

            Elsa took a moment to pause, glancing back. “Oh, no…Anna…”

            “What?” Anna also looked behind her. Aqua and Moana followed their gaze.

            Arendelle was distant by then, almost invisible at the mountain’s base. However, thick clouds had gathered over it, showering down snow.

            “No…” Elsa gasped. “I can’t…I can’t have done it again.”

            “You fixed it last time,” Aqua told her. “You can fix it again.”

            “I can’t!” Elsa insisted. “I thought I already had it under control! I don’t know why it isn’t working now!”

            “Please calm down,” Aqua urged. “Things will only get worse if you panic.”

            “Things are getting worse whether or not I panic!” Elsa yelled.

            “We just need to talk this out,” Aqua told her. “You’re afraid because of the responsibility being placed upon you, and that’s causing the storm. If we just talk about your fears – “

            “Aqua?” Moana said in a sudden panic. “I don’t really think we have time for that right now.”

            “Why not?” Aqua asked, spinning to look to Moana.

            The answer became immediately clear. A throng of white wolves was emerging directly from the snows that blanketed the mountain, bursting up from the ground only to paw at it threateningly and snarl at the four women. The mark of the broken heart was visible in stark black against their shaggy white fur.

            “Shattered!” Moana cried.

            “WHAT are they?” Anna yelled back, drawing her sword.

            “The monsters that are invading the worlds with the Darkness!” Moana explained, bracing her oar. “We call them the Shattered!”

            The first of the wolves lunged; Moana beat it across the face with her oar, sending it flying back. Another wolf charged Anna; it met its fate at the end of Anna’s blade, and as soon as it was impaled, it, like the great sea monster, turned to stone and crumbled away.

            “They’re ROCKS?” Anna said in surprise.

            Aqua’s Keyblade materialized, and she focused on three Shattered wolves at once, watching them edge closer before making their leap. As soon as they did, she let a burst of magic fly, blowing all three of them to stony smithereens.

            Elsa turned to look behind the group, where more of the Shattered wolves gathered. The sight of the predatory beasts did not increase her fear. Instead, she thought only of protecting her sister and her new companions. Great spikes of ice erupted from the ground at her beckon, running the wolves through and reducing them to dust.

            “ANNA!” Moana smacked one of the wolves so hard with the oar, it was rolled in Anna’s direction. Anna immediately stabbed down on the wolf.

            “EEEYAAAAH!” Aqua cut down wolf after wolf, charging into a crowd of them, blade swinging left and right.

            “Leave…” Elsa impaled a wolf with an icy spike.

            “My…” Anna sliced off a wolf’s head.

            “Sister…” Elsa struck a wolf with a barrage of spikes.

            “ALONE!” Anna ran through the Shattered symbol and the center of the last wolf, causing it to fall.

            The four waited to see if any more Shattered would appear, but none came forth. “I think that was the last of them,” Aqua stated.

            A great gust of wind beat against all four, bringing with it a rush of snow that pelted their faces. “But we’re not out of danger!” Elsa insisted. “Not as long as I’m with you!”

            “You didn’t seem out of control at all when you were fighting the Shattered!” Aqua pointed out.

            “But I AM out of control!” Elsa yelled, fighting to see her companions against the barrage of snow.

            Anna pushed against the wind to stand by her sister. “It’ll be okay!” she insisted, taking Elsa’s hand.

            “Anna,” Elsa cautioned, “get away. You remember what happened the last time I…I can’t lose you that way!”

            “I don’t care!” Anna argued. “You’re my sister and I love you! I know you’re scared, and you feel like you’re just doing everything wrong. But even if you’re out of control, I’m going to be here for you! I’ll stay with you until things are figured out, no matter how long it takes! I don’t care if it puts me in danger! You’re too important!”

            Moana made her way to the pair of sisters. “Anna’s right!” she affirmed. “I know you’re trying your best! I’m still going to stand with you, even if there is danger!”

            “You hardly know me!” Elsa reminded her.

            “Well, you taught me how to skate!” Moana recalled. “That’s something! And we’re both part of the seven! That means we have a connection! I won’t just leave you because your powers are out of control!”

            “You don’t understand!” Elsa warned. “I could kill you!”

            “I’ve survived worse!” Moana boasted.

            Aqua’s mind was racing. Elsa had claimed to be in control of her powers when they had shown up, and even after Elsa had first learned of the destiny of the substitute Princesses of Heart, she was still able to create the lifelike sculptures with no wavering and no affect upon the conditions surrounding the kingdom. It was almost as if the weather had separated itself from Elsa. Could it just have been a natural storm that occurred regardless of Elsa’s presence?

            But then Aqua knew the answer. She barreled toward Elsa, raising her voice to be heard above the wind: “IT ISN’T YOU!”

            “What?” Elsa replied.

            “The storm!” Aqua cried. “It isn’t you! You aren’t the one doing this! Before I left, I was told about the Darkness that was covering other worlds! And something that’s happening on every world is storms that last for days! This isn’t your fault! It’s whoever’s creating the Shattered! You’ve been in control this whole time! I saw it when you made the statues, and I saw it just now when you fought the Shattered!”

            “Elsa!” Anna realized, holding up the hand she had intertwined with her sister’s. “Look! If you were losing control again, it would be coming from your hand! But I’m okay!”

            Elsa thought long and hard over what had just been told to her. Could it be true?

            “You have to believe in yourself, Elsa!” Anna encouraged. “You have to KNOW that you’re strong enough to call back the storm if it was you!”

            “I believe in you!” Moana added.

            “So do I!” Aqua chorused.

            Elsa had no way to prove them right or wrong. But so long as there was a chance they were correct, she was going to take it. “Then we have to hurry,” she insisted, “and find out who is doing this to Arendelle!”

            “We need to get to the heart!” Moana reminded her. “Let’s keep going!”

            Onward and upward the mountain they pressed.

            From a vantage point, the night goddess watched. So they’d figured her out and stopped her onslaught of Shattered. It didn’t matter. She would still have Arendelle frozen over. And if these women kept going the direction they were going, the night goddess would have plenty more chances to eradicate them.

 

* * *

 

            The storm made walking against the wind all the more difficult, but at last, a great silhouette of an immense structure came into view.

            “It’s Elsa’s ice castle!” Anna realized. “I promise it looks a lot prettier without all the snow blocking the view.”

            A great hulking shape detached itself from the castle, approaching the party. Aqua quickly drew her blade, ready to fight the wind in order to fend off another threat.

            “It’s okay!” Elsa told her, putting a hand on the Keyblade and pushing it down. “It’s just Marshmallow.”

            “Marshmallow?” Moana repeated.

            The shape was never quite fully visible in the blowing blizzard, but Moana and Aqua got the impression of a giant entirely made of snow walking forward to greet the group. He stood over them, blocking some of the harsher winds, and walked with them all the way to the castle doors.

            Neither Aqua nor Moana expected what they found in the castle’s interior. For one, as soon as the doors closed behind them, the blizzard’s noise was silenced, creating an air of peace. For another, the entire building was made entirely of ice, as promised, and that ice shimmered with every color of the rainbow. Intricate patterns festooned the walls and adorned the railings of the stairways; the foyer featured a grand icy chandelier whose points and edges glittered.

            And for a third, the floor of the atrium was absolutely packed with tiny snowmen.

            Each was smaller than Olaf by far, only a few inches high. When the quartet entered, they all cheered in high, squeaky voices.

            “Okay, whaaaaaat is going on?” Moana said nervously, bracing her oar in front of her. “What are they?”

            Elsa giggled. “These are…well…”

            “They’re Elsa’s children,” Anna supplied.

            “Anna!” Elsa said in shock.

            “Well?” Anna asked. “What else am I supposed to call them? They came from you! So this one time, Elsa got a cold, and every time she sneezed, one of these showed up. She kept on insisting she didn’t get colds, and so she kept pushing herself, and she just kept on sneezing up more and more of these little snowmen until we had so many, we had to take them here.”

            “That’s…quite a story,” Aqua said with a grin. She knelt to get a better look at the snowmen; a throng of them surrounded her. “Do any of you know where the Heart of the World is?” she asked gently.

            At those words, the snowmen all backed up, leaving a path to the center of the room. They surrounded the floor there, all looking down and inward. At the very center of the room, there shimmered the image of a Keyhole.

            “I…did not put that there,” Elsa said, taken aback.

            “Go to it,” Aqua encouraged. “That’s what you need in order to be awakened.”

            Anna and Elsa both walked toward the Keyhole, their steps almost in synchronization. They looked back to see Aqua and Moana encouraging them with twin smiles. When they reached the Keyhole, Elsa stood to its left and Anna to its right.

            “So…do we close our eyes or something?” Anna wondered out loud.

            “I think I have an idea,” Elsa stated. She put out both arms. “Take my hands, Anna.”

            “All right.” Anna clasped both of Elsa’s hands within her own.

            “Now you can close your eyes,” Elsa encouraged, shutting her own.

            Anna let her own lids fall, and they waited.

            The tranquility washed over both of them. Elsa felt as though everything was finally all right; she could be at peace. Then the opening of the inner doors hit; Anna was awed by what she saw in her mind’s eye, flashes of world after world after world.

            Seeing the glow of bright light emanate from the sisters, Aqua and Moana knew they had fulfilled their quest in Arendelle. “Did I glow like that?” Moana asked softly.

            “Yes,” Aqua whispered back.

            When it was over, Anna and Elsa let their hands drop. They turned to face Aqua and Moana. “We’re ready,” Elsa said confidently.

            “Take us anywhere!” Anna added.

            “What does your charm say?” Moana asked.

            “Let me find out.” Aqua withdrew the Wayfinder. Clutching it tightly, she let it speak to her of the next world. She looked up sharply in surprise. “I know this world already,” she realized.


	4. Chapter 4

As Aqua, Moana, Elsa, and Anna walked along the beach of the new world, Anna took a moment to soak in the warmer climate. “See, Elsa?” she observed. “If that other storm had been you, then there would be a snowstorm here too!”

            “It really wasn’t me, was it?” Elsa said in awe. “I’m…sorry I put you through everything I did back home.”

            “It’s all right,” Moana told her. The four had traded stories on the Gummi ride to this world, and Moana and Aqua had learned all of Anna and Elsa’s past, as well as vice versa. “After everything you went through, I can understand why you were afraid.”

            Aqua nodded. “Terra had a hard time controlling his powers too when he discovered the Darkness. It wasn’t easy for any of us. And I…I wasn’t as good at being there for him as I probably should have. Not like Anna was for you. But now I know that as long as we have each other, things won’t be as bad as they were then.”

            “I’m glad!” Anna chirped. “Man, this place sure does feel different. I know it’s not THAT different from Arendelle, but…” She cast her gaze about, looking to the great white rotund castle in the distance and out over the sea. “It just feels…different.”

            “It may not look that different on the surface,” Aqua told Anna, “but it’s what’s under the water that’s important.”

            “I’m guessing we’re headed for that castle,” Elsa mused.

            “That’s where I’m hoping to find our friend,” Aqua confirmed. “There really isn’t anyone else who could be one of the seven.”

            “Hey!” Moana pointed directly ahead. “There’s someone else here!”

            Aqua gave the situation a look. “Actually,” she announced, “that’s exactly who we’re looking for.”

            There were actually two people in view. One of them, a raven-haired man dressed in a white shirt and blue pants, knelt over the sand, plucking a water-worn leather boot out of it. He was jolted out of his examination of the lost article by a yell of “Eric! ERIC!”

            Eric straightened up to see his wife, a woman with billowing red hair who was clothed in a dress of blue and black, dashing across the beach toward him, holding up a blue glass bottle of some size. “Look!” she cried, holding up the bottle. “I’m glad it wasn’t broken. You can do all kinds of things with something like this!”

            “Good find, Ariel!” Eric congratulated.

            “Did you find anything?” Ariel asked when she drew nearer to Eric.

            “You’re not gonna believe it,” Eric told her, “but I found this.” He held out the boot.

            Ariel laughed. “Those things caused enough trouble in Atlantica.”

            Upon seeing Ariel and Eric, Aqua broke into a run; Moana, Anna, and Elsa followed. “Ariel!” Aqua called out.

            Ariel gasped. “Aqua!” She handed the bottle off to Eric and ran toward the blue-haired Keyblade master, giving her a tight hug when they were close enough to do so. When they parted, Ariel asked, “Are you off on another adventure?” She leaned to the side to get a good look at Aqua’s new traveling companions. “I see you made some friends!”

            Aqua stepped aside so Ariel could extend her hand to greet each of the newcomers. “I’m Ariel!” she introduced. “What are your names?”

            Moana was first to shake Ariel’s hand; “I’m Moana.”

            Elsa was next; “My name is Elsa.”

            “And I’m Anna.” Anna was third, keeping Ariel’s hand in hers for a while, pumping it up and down. “Princess of Arendelle. Elsa’s little sister. We’re kind of here on a…diplomatic mission. See, there’s this whole thing about…actually, I should probably just let Aqua tell you.” She finally let go of Ariel’s hand.

            “Oh?” Ariel stepped back to look at Aqua. “What’s going on?”

            Eric trotted up next to the group. “Is something happening?”

            “Actually, yes,” Aqua explained. “It’s pretty serious.”

            “Well, tell us!” Ariel urged.

            Aqua took the Wayfinder in hand. She was right; Ariel was the person she was looking for. “The Princesses of Heart have been defeated,” she began.

            Ariel gasped. “Are they…”

            “No,” Aqua said quickly. “They’re not dead. But something’s wrong with them that they can’t escape from. The worlds have picked seven new women to fill in for them in the meantime. And you’re one of them.”

            “Me?” Ariel gasped. “Does this mean…”

            “We’re going to save the worlds!” Anna cried triumphantly.

            “Do I get to go with you?” Ariel asked. “To find the others?”

            “Of course,” Aqua said with a smile.

            “I’ll finally get to see other worlds!” Ariel cried. “Just like I always dreamed!” She turned to Eric. “If you’re okay with that.”

            “I would never hold you back,” Eric said sincerely. “Just promise me you’ll tell me everything about your adventure when you come home.”

            “Oh, I will!” Ariel vowed. “Now there’s no telling how far I’ll go!”

            Aqua grinned. “You sound just like Moana.”

            “Oh?” Ariel looked to Moana. “Were you excited to visit other worlds, too?”

            “It’s been an experience!” Moana replied. “A good one, that is. Though I’m a little bit sick of the snow.”

            “You don’t seem too broken up about the others being gone,” Elsa observed.

            “Well, I know we’re going to save them,” Ariel said confidently.

            “Exactly!” Moana said cheerfully.

            “What are we waiting for?” Ariel asked. “Let’s go!” She grabbed onto Aqua and Moana’s hands and attempted to run with them.

            “Whoa!” Aqua was jerked off balance, landing on her behind in the sand and pulling Ariel (and, by consequence, Moana) down with her. “We can’t go just yet. There’s one thing to take care of first.”

            “What is it?” Ariel asked.

            “We have to take you to the Heart of the World,” Aqua explained. “That’s how you’ll be awakened to become one of the new seven.”

            “Hmm.” Ariel let go of both Aqua and Moana’s hands, standing up to dust herself off of sand. “So we’ll have to go underwater. I’m…not quite sure how to do that without Daddy’s trident here.”

            “Wait,” Moana asked as she too stood up. “What’s so special about your dad’s trident?”

            “Ariel’s dad is King Triton,” Eric volunteered as Aqua finally stood. “Ruler of the seven seas. He wields a trident that lets him control everything. That’s why we up here on land always ask Triton to bless our voyages before we set out.”

            “Up here on land?” Moana repeated. “So do you…LIVE…in the ocean?”

            “I used to!” Ariel explained with a grin. “I actually wasn’t always a human. Maybe I’m technically not a human now.”

            “But what WERE you?” Moana asked. “Or…are…you?”  
            “A mermaid!” Ariel answered cheerily.

            Moana mouthed a “Wow.” She then cleared her throat; “You know, the ocean is a good friend of mine.”

            “Can you talk to this world’s ocean too?” Anna asked.

            “I don’t know,” Moana admitted. She looked out to the waves, hoping to find familiarity. “Are you there?”

            A swell rose, and Moana made out the motion of a nod.

            Ariel gasped.

            “Hi,” Moana said with a wave. “Just checking in!”

            The swell subsided.

            “You can TALK to the ocean!” Ariel cried. “That’s wonderful! How long have you been able to do that?”

            “The ocean has been watching out for me since I was a kid,” Moana explained.

            “Could you ask it to help us get back underwater?” Ariel inquired.

            “I don’t think our relationship works quite that way,” Moana admitted. “That might be a tall order.”

            “Actually,” Aqua ventured, “I was studying transformation magic not too long before Yen Sid summoned me to find all of you. I might just be able to transform us all into mermaids so we could breathe underwater.”

            “Great!” Anna chirped. “That solves that problem!”

            “Under…the water?” Elsa reiterated shakingly. “I…I don’t know if I can. Water is so easy to freeze. If I lose control, I might freeze everything and everyone around me. I might even freeze the whole ocean over.”

            “I don’t think you could freeze an entire ocean,” Moana said dismissively. Then, thinking it over, “Do you…have any proof of how much power you have to do that?”

            “Well, Elsa doesn’t have to go to the heart!” Anna reminded the group. “Just Ariel! So if the rest of you want to go, Elsa and I could stay up here!”

            Aqua nodded. “You don’t have to come if you don’t feel up to it.”

            “Aw…I was hoping to get introduced to you all on the way,” Ariel pouted.

            “Ariel,” Aqua scolded, “you shouldn’t push her.”

            “But if she lets fear hold her back,” Ariel insisted, “she’ll miss out on the beauty of the ocean around her!”

            Elsa took a deep breath and steeled herself. “I’ll come,” she vowed. “It…won’t be easy. But Ariel’s right. And, more importantly, if I let fear hold me back now, it will keep holding me back from more important situations.”

            “All right!” Anna whooped. “We’re all going to be MERMAIDS!”

            Ariel turned to Eric. “Will you be okay looking after things while I’m gone?”

            “Of course,” Eric told her. “I’d tell you to have fun, but you always do.”

            Ariel rushed down to the water’s edge, slipping off her shoes and stepping into the foam. “Come on!” she encouraged.

            Moana admired Ariel’s drive. It made her feel excited and ready to tackle whatever lay ahead. She, too, stepped barefoot into the waters.

            Anna was next, followed by Aqua. Elsa was the last to follow, tentatively touching the water with a toe before plunging both feet in once she was sure the water would remain liquid.

            “Are you sure you’re okay?” Aqua asked Elsa.

            Elsa nodded. “I’m fine.”

            Aqua called her Keyblade to hand, raising it high into the air. She inhaled deeply, closing her eyes. Then, as the breath flowed out of her lungs and into the air, she let the magic flow up through her and into the Keyblade, where it erupted as sparks that showered over herself, Anna, Elsa, Moana, and Ariel.

            The change began at her feet, which flattened out and joined together at the heels; her legs bound together, scales growing over them. As she lost balance on her feet, Aqua pitched herself forward to land in the ocean waters. Her head went below the surface, and she took a deep breath not of air but water. Her spell had worked, she realized. Her eyes snapped open, and she rolled over in the water so she could sit up in the shallows and get a good look at herself. Her legs had undergone a complete metamorphosis into a mermaid’s tail with sky-blue scales. On top of that, the bottom half of her clothing had completely faded away, leaving her with only her blue top and white sleeves.

            A “WOOHOOOOOO!” alerted her to Anna’s successful transformation; the redhead was cavorting about in slightly deeper waters with a tail of green and a bodice of blue, sword still strapped to her side. Nearby, Elsa was running her hands over a tail so light in blue it was almost white, her dark blue bodice offsetting it completely. Turning to look in the opposite direction, Aqua saw Ariel with a green tail and purple top admiring Moana, whose tail was deep red.

            “I can’t believe it!” Moana gushed. “I’m a mermaid! I’m an actual mermaid!” She wiggled her fin happily.

            “Don’t just sit there in the shallows!” Ariel beckoned. “Give it a try!”

            Moana shoved off into deeper waters, pumping her tail and ducking her head down below to breathe the salty sea. “I can BREATHE!” she cried happily. She quickly seized her oar, not wishing to leave it behind.

            Aqua, Elsa, Anna, and Ariel gathered around her, and together, the quintet forged ahead into the waters.

            “Oh my gosh!” Moana pointed to a school of fish swimming by, their scales glimmering in the dappled sea sunlight. “Look! They’re so pretty! And look at THAT!” She gestured toward a rainbow of a coral reef. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen a reef from BELOW the water! Well, when I wasn’t trapped in one and trying not to drown. That didn’t count.”

            “You sound like I was when I first went to the surface to be with humans,” Ariel laughed. “Everything was so new and amazing. Even before that, I always liked to collect their treasures that fell from their wrecked ships. I used to try and guess what humans would use them for. I was usually wrong.”

            “Isn’t that what you were doing when we found you?” Anna asked. “Picking up trash – I mean lost things on the beach?”

            “It’s something Eric and I like to do together,” Ariel explained. “All sorts of lost human treasures wash up there. But it is trash in a way. It clutters up the beach. So we take whatever we can find that’s still whole and clean it up for our collection back home. We have kind of a little museum of lost things in our cellar. Anything else that doesn’t belong and we can’t keep, we throw away. It’s getting almost as big as the collection I made of human things when I lived down here. That’s where the Heart of the World is, by the way. In my old collection!”

            “I’d love to see your collection,” Moana said earnestly. “I bet you’d have things I’ve never seen before. Actually, I’d love to know all about you. What’s your story?”

            “Hmm,” Ariel pondered. “Now, where should I start? Well, I used to like to skip Daddy’s concerts all the time so I could go hunting for human treasure…”

            And so Ariel began her tale, one that would take up time until the group had gone further down into the ocean, nearing the place that Ariel was at that very time detailing: the kingdom of Atlantica.

 

* * *

 

            The night goddess was uninterested in actually dipping beneath the waves. She had already done so once to collect one of her prizes, and found the experience less than pleasant. However, she was aware the substitute princesses were on the move. They had survived the wolves, but what else could they weather?

            Hovering above the waves, she pointed her weapon down at the surface. A Shattered began to grow, starting out as round stone but taking shape, lengthening, growing jagged appendages.

            “Go stop them,” the night goddess told the new Shattered, “before they give me a reason to worry about them. And make sure you take out the ice queen first.”

            The Shattered cut silently through the water, its back fin sticking up from the waves ominously before it dipped below.

            The night goddess flew overhead, now turning her weapon to the sky. Out here, where the ocean was deeper, the sky was already clouded over, promising storm. Soon, her handiwork would spread toward Eric’s kingdom. Ships had already sunken due to the turbulence, and more were to do so before all was said and done. Still, she agitated the skies a little more, hoping to quicken the process.

 

* * *

 

            “How are you doing, Elsa?” Aqua asked when Ariel’s story was said and done.

            “Well…” Elsa held out both of her hands. Each was covered in a thin layer of ice that cracked when she flexed her fingers and melted away when she balled her hands up into fists, only to regrow in its same paper-thin state. “I’m still a bit anxious. But this is the worst that’s come of it.”

            “You’re doing great!” Ariel encouraged.

            “So you said you were a singer,” Elsa told Ariel.

            “Could you maybe sing for us?” Moana asked. “Just something small? Please?”

            “Okay!” Ariel agreed. “On one condition.”

            “What is it?” Anna asked.

            “You all have to sing something so I can hear your voices!” Ariel demanded.

            “Okay, sure!” Moana agreed.

            “I will,” Elsa added.

            “I’m ready!” Anna chimed in.

            Aqua sighed. “I suppose I have to.”

            “What would I give to live where you are?” Ariel sang; her voice rang out like a bell. “What would I pay to stay here beside you? What would I do to see you smiling at me? Where would we walk? Where would we run? If we could stay all day in the sun? Just you and me, and I could be part of your world!”

            Ariel had almost hypnotized the others; they watched her in silence even when it was clear that she had finished singing. Finally, Moana mustered up a “That was amazi – “

            “Come on!” Ariel urged. “You all promised!”

            Moana immediately snapped to attention: “See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me! And no one knows! How far it goes! If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me, one day I’ll know how far I’ll go!”

            “Elsa!” Ariel called out.

            “And here I stand!” Elsa belted. “In the light of day! Let the storm rage ooooooon! The cold never bothered me anyway.”

            “ANNA!” Ariel cried.

            “For the first time in forever, you don’t have to be afraid!” Anna sang. “We can work this out together! We’ll reverse the storm you’ve made! Don’t panic; we’ll make the sun shine bright! We can face this thing together; we can change this thing together! And everything will be all right!”

            “AQUA!” Ariel beckoned.

            “Don’t…don’t get me wrong, I love you,” Aqua attempted, “but does this mean I have to meet your father? When we are older, you’ll understand what I meant when I said no, I don’t think life is quite that simple…”

            That broke the spell, but no one wanted to say it.

            “It’s okay,” Aqua said with a slight smile. “I know I can’t carry a tune.”

            “I think you just…need practice,” Ariel offered encouragingly.

            The Shattered careened toward the quintet without warning, its sharp teeth gnashing as it barreled toward Elsa. By the time all saw it, only Aqua was fast enough to react. “ELSA!” she screamed, shoving the queen out of the way and jamming her Keyblade at the creature.

            The jaws of the enormous shark-shaped Shattered closed over the vertical shaft of the Keyblade, propping its mouth open for a moment; Aqua was far too close to the knifelike teeth for comfort, with a good view down a throat that seemed too slimy and pulsating to truly be stone underneath. The Shattered twisted sharply, dislodging the Keyblade from its mouth; its tail smacked into Elsa, who was thrown to a nearby rock formation.

            “ELSA!” Anna, Moana, and Ariel all yelled.

            Elsa smacked hard into the rock and lay against its side, unmoving.

            Anna drew her sword. “You’ll pay for doing that to MY SISTER!” She barged toward the shark, blade at the ready. The shark turned on her, ready to charge; Anna held her ground. As the shark lunged, Anna deftly dodged, dragging her sword down the shark’s side. It made only a surface cut in the shark’s skin; it felt like dragging her blade through a five-foot-deep pool of mud. “I think this one is stronger than the last ones!” Anna warned.

            Ariel charged the shark, turning herself like a corkscrew; at such a high speed, she impacted the shark in its wounded side like a bullet, causing it to reel. Moana then swooped in to knock its head as many times as she could with her oar, hoping to disorient it.

            Aqua ducked beneath the shark, pointing her blade up at its underbelly, where its Shattered sigil was detailed in deep blue, before careening straight upward. The shark thrashed, throwing Ariel and Moana aside as Aqua simply plowed through empty water.

            “Aqua!” Anna yelled. “Let’s hit it from both sides!”

            The call distracted the shark’s attention toward Anna; it made to rush her. Ariel quickly seized the shark’s tail, pulling it back as hard as she could. The shark thrashed its tail in response; Moana joined Ariel behind it, holding the tail back with all her might.

            Anna positioned herself at the shark’s right side, where she had already wounded it. Aqua swam around to the left. They nodded to each other before swooping down upon the shark crosswise, passing each other as their blades cut through.

            The shark reverted to stone, crumbling to pieces that sank down to the depths.

            “ELSA!” Aqua, Anna, Moana, and Ariel all rushed to the rock where the blonde queen was starting to stir.

            “Are you okay?” Anna gushed. “Please tell me you’re okay. Elsa, you have to be okay; you can’t not be okay – “

            “Mmmh…I’m…fine,” Elsa groaned as she peeled her eyes open. “I just got knocked out.” Realizing she had last seen her sister and new friends threatened by an enormous shark, she snapped to attention. “The Shattered – “

            “We got it,” Anna informed Elsa. “It’s okay.”

            “Thank goodness,” Elsa sighed.

            “I can’t believe you DID that!” Moana cheered to Ariel. “You just…CHARGED at it! Without a weapon!”

            “That’s how I generally fought Heartless,” Ariel said with a shrug.

            “Who taught you to fight that way?” Moana asked.

            “I just sort of…figured it out,” Ariel admitted.

            “Ah, I see.” Moana nodded knowingly. “Self-taught.”

            “Exactly!”

            “I’m glad everyone was fine,” Aqua stated. “Though I’m a little concerned that the first person the Shattered went for was Elsa. Elsa, you’re the one out of all of us who could have stopped that Shattered in one blow by freezing the water around it. I think it knew it had to take you out of the fight. I think someone told it to attack you first.”

            “The person who stole the heart of Te Fiti,” Moana added.

            “The person who started the storms in Arendelle,” Anna hypothesized.

            “We have to figure out who this person is,” Elsa said sternly.

            “I wonder if Daddy knows anything about this,” Ariel mused. “We’re going to have to see him anyway. The Keyhole only appears for the trident. We could ask him!”

            “That’s our best course of action,” Aqua agreed. “Until then, we have to be on our guard.”

 

* * *

 

            Of all the sights Moana had seen since leaving her homeworld, Atlantica was the one that awed her the most. “It’s GORGEOUS!” she cried. “I can’t believe you all live down here in the middle of the ocean, and in such a beautiful castle!”

            “It’s just home to me,” Ariel said with a shrug. “Come on! Let’s go see Daddy!”

            Moana was entranced by every single thing they passed on the way to the castle: markets, concert halls, museums, all fitted to exist comfortably on the seafloor. Anna pointed and gasped at about half as much. Elsa and Aqua simply observed quietly, though they too were impressed.

            In the throne room of the castle, a muscular, white-bearded merman spoke anxiously to his confidante, a tiny red crab who perched on a single arm of the great green throne. “The reports have said the storms are getting worse,” the merman stated. “As far as I can see, this can only be the work of – “

            A diminutive seahorse sped into the room, clearing his throat before announcing in a high-pitched voice: “Your highness! Preeeeeesenting your daughter, Princess Ariel, and her companions: Master Aqua, Princess Anna of Arendelle, Queen Elsa of Arendelle, and Moana of Motonui!”

            The merman had never heard the names of such kingdoms, and in fact, Aqua had wondered if it was wise to simply give them away. However, Ariel had insisted upon getting a proper royal introduction.

            When Ariel swam into the room, she quickened her speed in order to enthusiastically greet the bearded merman, crying, “DADDY!” She encircled him in a tight hug, which he returned more gently.

            “Ariel,” the merman, who the others all inferred to be Triton, replied. “It’s good to see you.” He let go of her, and she backed off. “What are you doing back here?”

            “It’s a long story,” Ariel answered. “One that ends in me kiiiiiiind of needing your trident in order to bring out the Keyhole in the cavern with my treasures in it!”

            “Oh, Ariel…” Triton shook his head. “I’m afraid that isn’t possible. I don’t know why you would want to do such a thing in the first place, but it simply can’t be done.”

            “Something terrible has happened!” the small red crab piped up.

            “Come on, Sebastian,” Ariel replied, “how terrible could it really be?”

            “De king’s trident has been stolen!” Sebastian informed her.

            Ariel gasped. “Stolen?”

            “Unfortunately, yes,” Triton confirmed.

            “But how?” Ariel asked. “Who did it? Ursula? The Evil Manta?”

            “We have no evidence toward anyone,” Triton stated solemnly. “All we know is that storms overhead have been increasing, sinking the ships that cross it.”

            Ariel folded her arms. “And I suppose you’re happy about that.”

            “Ariel…” Triton sighed. “I still believe a great many humans are out to do more harm than good to us merfolk and the other denizens of the sea. But I don’t wish for them all to die. Especially not for those like…well, like Eric.” He had been skeptical of Eric at first, even after he had let Ariel go to be with him. But ever since Ariel and Eric’s union, the latter had shown an increased interest in protecting the ocean, making a move to steer his kingdom’s commerce away from fishing and seeking out sources of pollution in order to shut them down. “These storms have not subsided for several days. There is only one possible cause: the trident.”

            “Excuse me,” Aqua broke in. “We’re all new around here. Can this trident control the weather anywhere?”

            “Why, yes,” Triton confirmed.

            “Could it cause a snowstorm?” Anna asked.

            “If I wished it to, yes,” Triton answered.

            “What about turning day to eternal night?” Aqua asked. “Could it do that?”

            “I don’t see why I would ever want to do such a thing,” Triton answered. “I haven’t tested the limits of it in that regard. But I suppose it is possible.”

            Aqua, Anna, Elsa, and Moana all looked to each other knowingly. “I think we just found out what caused the storm over Arendelle,” Aqua said solemnly.

            “Who are you, again,” Triton asked, “and where did you say you were from?”

            Aqua had heard much about Triton, and based on what she knew, she spent some time weighing her options, trying to decide whether it was safer to keep her origins from him or reveal the truth. In the end, honesty won out. “I’m a friend of Sora’s,” she said, “and these are friends of mine.”

            Triton’s expression hardened. “You have come from another world,” he deduced. “And I presume at least one of you is a Keybearer.”

            Aqua brought the weapon into being, holding it out toward him. “Yes. Just me.”

            “Daddy, you can trust them!” Ariel urged. “They all helped to save my life from a gigantic shark monster!”

            “Actually,” Elsa corrected, “Ariel and the others helped save my life.”

            Triton glared at Aqua before relenting, “If you are telling the truth, then I trust any friend of both my daughter and Sora. If, however, I should find out you have come with sinister intentions…”

            “All we’ve come to do is awaken your daughter’s power as one of the seven substitutes for those of pure heart,” Aqua explained.

            Triton nodded. “I know of these seven. Humans they may be, but with no Darkness in their hearts, I trust their deeds. What has happened to them?”

            “No one knows,” Aqua admitted. “The worlds have chosen seven more to take their place in the meantime, and Ariel is one of them. That’s why we needed to go to the Heart of the World. But without the trident…” She trailed off.

            “Well, be specific!” Sebastian chimed in. “Did you need to bring her to de Heart of the World, or de Keyhole?”

            “I…guess Master Yen Sid said the Heart of the World,” Aqua realized.

            “Even without de trident,” Sebastian asserted, “de heart is still de heart! Whatever you needed it should do, it should still do…whatever magic thingy you need!”

            “We’ll give it a try,” Aqua replied. She bowed her head. “Your majesty. I promise we will find out who stole your trident and return it to its proper place with you.”

            “My court shall be conducting its own search in the meantime,” Triton stated. “But if this menace is truly affecting more than one world, your search may be better suited for this than mine. I wish you the best of luck.”

            “And I wish the same to you,” Aqua said respectfully.

            The quintet of women turned and swam from the throne room back out toward the open sea.

* * *

 

            The night goddess watched the progress of the quintet through the magical window she had conjured with the trident. When she saw them leave, she grit her sharp teeth. “No more,” she resolved. “These girls will trouble me no more!”

            She flew high above the waters, positioning herself over where she knew Ariel’s treasure trove to be. The trident was aimed down at the surface of the water. A brilliant beam emanated from its tips, stirring up the waters.

            As the sea swirled, the night goddess smirked.

 

* * *

 

            “Come on!” Ariel encouraged. “We’re almost there!” And in fact, the rock formation that camouflaged Ariel’s collection was in sight.

            “Do…you feel that?” Moana wondered out loud. “Something isn’t right. I can feel it in the water.”

            Aqua stopped swimming. “If Moana says something is wrong,” she insisted, “something’s wrong.”

            The others halted, gathering up around Aqua. “What should we do?” Anna asked.

            “I…don’t know yet,” Aqua admitted.

            The waters began to swirl around them, tugging at their bodices and hair.

            “What is THAT?” Anna said in a panic.

            “I think…” Ariel replied shakingly. “It’s the beginning of a…”

            The water picked up speed, becoming a cyclone.

            “WHIRLPOOL!” Ariel screamed. “SWIM AWAY!”

            All five turned to make a break for it, but the whirlpool expanded, catching all five in a rush of screams. Round and round they went, unable to break free.

            Aqua noted rocks and coral whirling around her field of vision, also picked up by the whirlpool. Soon, she knew, the formation would pick up enough debris that it could batter her and the others to death. Trying to think quickly, she called up her Keyblade, aiming it upward. All she could think to do was freeze the raging waters, but the most she could manage was sending a jet of ice shooting aimlessly through the cyclone.

            Moana could feel the pain of the ocean. Someone had manipulated this whirlpool unnaturally, against the ocean’s natural current, and the ocean was hurt. “Ocean!” she called out. “I know this hurts, and someone did this to you! But please, help me! Ariel needs to get to that cavern! HELP HER! PLEASE!”

            Ariel struggled, unable to free herself from the constant round and round at a nearly breakneck speed. Then she was suddenly ripped from the current, propelled by an invisible force toward the door to the cavern. Having her suspicion about what had happened, she whispered, “Thank you, ocean” before pulling aside the rocky door and slipping inside.

            The tall cavern with its many rocky shelves awaited her as it had done so many times before. She approached its center, looking around at the familiar sight. Her eyes locked with the imprint of the trident made in the base of one of the shelves: the imprint that, connected with the trident itself, revealed the Keyhole. Would this truly work without it?

            Ariel shut her eyes, waiting for something to happen. And something did. Calm flowed over her; she was still aware of the danger her friends were in, but she was confident everything would be all right. She could feel every wave of the ocean around her, all over the world, and with a sudden snap, the waves of every ocean on all the worlds came rushing into her soul, filling her mind’s eye with color.

            As quickly as the sensation had arrived, it subsided. “It worked,” Ariel muttered to herself. “It really worked!” She swam back down to the door. “Now I just have to figure out how to save my friends.”

            Aqua tried another blast of ice, which went nowhere. At that moment, she passed Elsa, who took note of what Aqua was trying to do. And she knew it fell to her.

            “It’s all right,” she whispered to herself. “You’re in control. You can do this.”

            The whirlpool began to freeze from the bottom up and the inside out. Anna, Aqua, Moana, and Elsa were roughly shoved out of the way by an expanding column of ice. The ice kept on engulfing, stopping the whirlpool solid and creating a pillar that reached all the way up to the water’s surface. When it was complete, Elsa let out the breath she’d been holding.

            “Elsa!” Anna cried. “You saved us!”

            Ariel emerged to see the monstrous ice column and her new friends treading safely at its side. “You did it!” she cried.

            Elsa smiled, looking at her hands, which were no longer blanketed in thin ice. “I don’t think I’ll be having any control issues anymore,” she stated confidently.

            “Did it work?” Moana asked eagerly. “Did you reach the heart?”

            “Yes!” Ariel exclaimed. “It felt so strange. First, I was just filled with this thought that everything was going to be okay. And then I felt like I was touching every ocean there is on every world!”

            “Then it worked,” Aqua resolved. “We didn’t need the Keyhole after all.”

            “Four down,” Anna counted, “three to go!”

            “I can’t wait to travel to the next world!” Ariel gushed. “Where are we going?”

            Aqua took hold of the Wayfinder from a pocket in her bodice. “Let’s see.” She held the charm out, feeling its pull. Then she smiled. “I know this world, too. And I know exactly who we’re looking for.”


	5. Chapter 5

Aqua, Moana, Anna, Elsa, and Ariel walked across the bridge to the next kingdom on human legs. Aqua had visited this realm before, but the other four were entranced by the intricate hillside civilization with its multicolored gables and castle of tall white towers nestled beneath a blue sky ornamented with puffy white clouds.

            “Okay, no offense,” Anna commented, “but this place is a lot less…flat than Arendelle.”

            “Look at that!” Ariel grabbed Moana’s free hand, leading her to a vendor’s cart filled with nothing but cast-iron frying pans. “I love these!” She plucked one of the pans off the cart, testing its heavy weight in both hands.

            “I’ve…actually never seen one of these before,” Moana admitted. “What’s it for?”

            “Well, it’s actually to cook food in,” Ariel explained.

            Moana nodded. “That makes sense.”

            “But when I collected them off wrecked ships,” Ariel went on, turning the pan sideways, “I used to think they were a special kind of human weapon, the way humans would actually use a club or a sword.” She swung the pan through the air.

            “That ALSO makes sense!” Moana agreed.

            “All right,” Aqua said contentedly. “That’s all fun, but we really shouldn’t have any more distractions. We need to head for the castle.”

            Ariel hung up the pan. “No distractions,” she promised, and Moana nodded.

            As the walk resumed, Anna insisted, “Luckily, you won’t have to worry about me. I’m never distracted. I am the QUEEN of focus – IS THAT A CANDY SHOP?” She pressed her face to the window, looking at the display within. “Elsa! They have all KINDS of chocolate in there!”

            “Anna, we don’t have time,” Elsa insisted.

            “Don’t we have time for just one little stop?” Ariel argued.

            “I…” Aqua sighed. “I guess one stop wouldn’t hurt.”

            Ten minutes later, Anna emerged with two bulging bags of candy. “Everyone, feel free to take as much as you want!” she urged. “Just…leave SOME of the chocolate for me.”

            Elsa, Ariel, and Moana each reached into the bag and took a sweet.

            “Are you sure you don’t want any, Aqua?” Moana asked.

            “Well…if you insist.” Aqua took ahold of one peppermint and placed it in her mouth.

            “I should be good now,” Anna promised. “From here out, it’s straight up to the…” She halted in her tracks to sniff the air. “Wait! I think I smell a bakery!”

            “Anna,” Aqua scolded, “we already stopped once for candy – “

            Anna was already making tracks toward the bake shop, whose sign proclaimed it to be called “Atilla the Bun.”

            “Too late,” Elsa laughed. “Once Anna gets her heart set on baked goods, there’s no stopping her.”

            Aqua shook her head and walked briskly after Anna.

            Anna was found at the counter, talking to the shop owner, a tall and bulky man whose face was concealed by a bucket-shaped horned helmet. “And I’ll have an éclair for Elsa,” she explained, “and a blueberry scone for Aqua. I don’t know, she just seems like a scone person. I think, for Moana, I’ll take one of the BIG chocolate chip cookies – “

            “Anna,” Aqua said sternly, “after this, we can’t have any more distractions.”

            “This is the last one!” Anna insisted. “Promise!”

            Each of the quintet was outfitted with a dessert by the time they left, and Aqua had to admit the blueberry scone was to her liking; perhaps Anna had a talent for matching desserts to their recipients.

            “Onward!” Anna proclaimed. “To the castle!” A window display caught her eye. “Wait, is that a dress shop – “

            “NO.” Aqua seized both of Anna’s shoulders from behind and shoved her forward.

            Up higher, close to the castle, a sizeable crowd was jostling about in an open circus. The sound of street musicians playing in concert wafted down to grace the ears of the quintet. “I know, I know,” Anna sighed. “No distractions.”

            “It is in our way,” Aqua admitted. “We’ll have to check it out one way or another.”

            They pushed through the outer crowd to see that what was happening was a dance. The musicians played a jaunty tune as a myriad of people danced their hearts out, swapping partners every now and then. Aqua thought, for just a moment, she caught the silhouette of a very familiar brunette man passing through the crowd. And if he were there, his beloved certainly would be as well.

            “I think I recognized someone here,” Aqua announced. “I need to get a closer look.”

            “Well, you know how to get a closer look, right?” Anna elbowed Aqua as she set down her bags of sweets.

            Aqua sighed, giving a smile. “Dance.”

            “Exactly!” Ariel rushed out onto the cobblestones, blending into the crowd immediately.

            “Come on, Elsa!” Anna dragged her older sister out onto the floor, where they started out dancing together but soon became separated to partner up with strangers.

            “I’ve never danced like this before,” Moana admitted. “Dancing on the island is VERY different. What should I do?”

            “I guess just do your best,” Aqua suggested. “Or stay on the sidelines if you want.”

            “Maybe I better – “ Moana began.

            Ariel spun out of the crowd to meet her. “Moana!” she urged. “You should come dance with me!”

            “But I don’t know this dance,” Moana told her.

            “Then do your own dance!” Ariel coerced. “There are no rules about how to dance!”

            “But everyone else looks like they’re doing the same thing – “

            “Forget what everyone else is doing! Just do what you know how to do! Dancing should come from your heart!”

            Moana nodded. She truly did want to dance with Ariel and share in the redhead’s excitement. “Okay!” She set her oar by Anna’s bags and ran out onto the dancefloor, beginning the moves she had been taught in Motonui. Ariel skipped around her, never moving too far away.

            “Well,” Aqua resolved, “might as well join in.”

            She entered the fray, first taking the hand of a strange man who spun her, then another who skipped with her. She was twirled into the arms of someone far more familiar, confirming her suspicions.

            “Eugene?” Aqua greeted.

            “Hey!” Eugene Fitzherbert responded as the two began a lively dance. “Aqua! Fancy meeting you here! How’s it been?”

            “It’s been strange,” Aqua answered.

            “Uh-oh,” Eugene remarked. “You sound serious.”

            “Things are serious right now,” Aqua informed him. “I need to talk to Rapunzel.”

            “I think that can be arranged,” Eugene told her. “But you might notice a little something that…changed since last time you saw her.”

            “I’ve met a talking snowman,” Aqua replied. “I think I’m ready for whatever’s waiting.”

            “One dance with the princess herself, coming up!” Eugene drew Aqua in close, then spun her out in a very particular direction. When Aqua stopped spinning, her hands were taken by the nearest person, who gasped when she realized who she had ahold of.

            “Aqua!” Rapunzel cried. “It’s so good to see you! How ARE you?”

            “I’m…” Aqua was frozen in place, momentarily unable to dance. When last she had seen Rapunzel, the young woman had been similarly dressed in a purple gown, but bearing short brunette hair that didn’t even reach past her chin. Now, she had a long, thick braid of blonde locks that brushed the ground whenever she moved, much like she’d borne when Sora had first met her. “Your hair,” Aqua spat out at last. “It’s back. But I thought…how?”

            “Long and crazy story,” Rapunzel answered. “There were these mysterious black rocks, and…yeaaaah. Probably a story better suited for being OFF the dancefloor. Speaking of which…”

            “Right,” Aqua realized with a nod. She set about moving her feet in time to the music, coordinating with Rapunzel as best she could.

            “I dunno,” Rapunzel said after a while. “I don’t think any couple on the floor is gonna beat those two.” She nodded toward where Ariel and Moana moved to the beat in their own way, laughing as they kept their eyes on each other.

            “They’re actually friends of mine,” Aqua explained. “And so are…” She glanced around the circus, her gaze passing over Eugene again until she located both Anna and Elsa. “Those two.”

            “You brought a whole party with you,” Rapunzel observed. “Are they from your world, or somewhere else?”

            “All different worlds,” Aqua answered. “That’s why we’re here to see you. There’s a new Darkness spreading, and – “

            The music played its final notes, and all current couples threw in their finishing move before breaking up and going back to the crowd. Moana, Ariel, Anna, and Elsa made their way over to Aqua, as did Eugene and his current dance partner, a woman with short, dark hair and a gray tunic.

            “Hold that thought,” Rapunzel told Aqua. “I know, that was a pretty big thought to hold, but I think we should probably all get introduced first.”

            “Is this the one we’re looking for?” Anna asked excitedly.

            Aqua checked in with the Wayfinder. She was correct. “It is.”

            “Hi!” Anna grabbed Rapunzel’s hand and shook it fervently. “My name’s Anna, princess of Arendelle, and I’m going to stop shaking your hand before this gets too long and awkward!” She then let go.

            “Elsa,” Elsa said with a curtsy. “Anna’s older sister.”

            “I’m Moana,” Moana added.

            “And I’m Ariel!” Ariel concluded.

            “It’s so good to meet all of you!” Rapunzel moved forward to seize Elsa in a bear hug.

            “I…uh…oh, all right…” Elsa sputtered before returning the hug.

            The others all lined up for hugs in turn, which Rapunzel was happy to give. “And they told me bear hugs weren’t diplomatically correct greetings!” the blonde princess scoffed after giving Ariel the last of them. “Anyway, I’m Rapunzel, princess of Corona. This is Eugene Fitzherbert, my, well…I love him.”

            “Couldn’t be happier,” Eugene confirmed.

            “And this is Cassandra,” Rapunzel continued, gesturing to the black-haired woman: “royal guard in training!”

            “Raps’ handmaiden, technically,” Cassandra corrected.

            “Should we take this in private?” Moana wondered out loud.

            “It’s okay,” Rapunzel assured the others. “Eugene and Cassandra both know about…” She gestured up to the sky. “All of that.”

            “It was hard to swallow at first,” Cassandra admitted, “but I’m used to it now. And since she brought it up, I’m guessing that’s where all of you are from.”

            This was met with several nods of assent.

            “That was an absolutely wonderful dance!” Ariel complimented. “What’s the occasion?”

            “Occasion?” Rapunzel repeated. “Well…I actually had kind of a tough day recently, and I just felt like maybe if I threw a dance in the street, it would cheer everybody up. I think it worked!”

            “What’s wrong?” Elsa inquired. “If I can ask.”

            “It’s okay,” Rapunzel assured her. “I just…a couple days ago, my parents left me in charge of Corona for two days. It was like I was the queen. And I don’t think it could have gone worse. I feel like I betrayed one of my best friends, but I had to in order to save everyone else here. And in order to do THAT, I had to take a big risk and chase after an idea I didn’t even have proof was real. I almost lost another friend, Eugene nearly didn’t make it back from going to look for my parents because I couldn’t…I just feel like I made the wrong decision at every turn, even though I know what I did was right. It’s honestly making me doubt if I want to be a princess anymore.”

            A silence fell over the group.

            “I’m sorry,” Rapunzel followed up. “I didn’t mean to bring everybody down. That’s what the dance was supposed to be for. Everything’s okay now, and I’m getting ready to try again.”

            “You don’t need to apologize,” Elsa told her. “I’ve felt the same way. I didn’t know if I could ever be queen, and sometimes, I still feel like I’m the wrong person for the job.”

            “And it’s not too late to make things up to your friends,” Anna added. “I mean, if Elsa and I could make amends after ten years of separation, your friends will still be there for you too.”

            “Making tough decisions is just part of the job,” Moana chimed in. “Back home, I do my best to make the right call, but usually, I’m just going with my instincts.”

            “And who says you have to be a responsible princess all the time anyway?” Ariel suggested. “Take some days off! Play hooky!”

            “I don’t know much about being a leader,” Aqua concluded, “but I’d listen to these four. All I can say is that I know you did your best, and that’s what counts.”

            “Thank you,” Rapunzel said with a smile. “That really means a lot. But we should probably talk about something else. Like why you all came here.”

            Aqua cast her gaze about; no strangers or passersby seemed to be listening. “The Princesses of Heart are gone,” she stated. Knowing what was coming next, she quickly added, “Not dead. Trapped in a state where they can’t break free.”

            “How did THAT happen?” Rapunzel asked.

            “We aren’t sure yet,” Aqua told her, “though we’re putting together some pieces about the person that did it. The new Darkness I mentioned is turning day to night on many worlds, and storms are plaguing kingdoms.”

            “The last thing we need is another storm,” Eugene grumbled. “Especially a snowstorm.”

            Elsa put both hands behind her back, clutching one within the other and thinking back to her gloves.

            “That’s why we need to gather the substitute seven,” Aqua stated. “The worlds have chosen seven new women to replace the Princesses of Heart, and you’re one of them.”

            “I’m…” Rapunzel’s eyes widened. “I’m WHAT?”

            “You need to be awakened at the Heart of the World,” Aqua told her. “That way, you can take your place as one of the new seven.”

            “The new seven,” Rapunzel repeated. “That’s…not very catchy. Can’t we just be the new Princesses of Heart?”

            “Not a princess,” Moana pointed out.

            “Hmm…” Rapunzel thought it over. “There has to be something we all have in common that can make for a good team name. Tell me something about each of you!”

            “Well, I have power over snow and ice,” Elsa began.

            “I love chocolate!” Anna chimed in.

            “I used to be a mermaid,” Ariel added.

            “I’m a master wayfinder,” Moana said.

            “And I’ve been tracking you all down with this charm.” Aqua held up the blue star. “Which just so happens to be called a Wayfinder.”

            “Wayfinder!” Rapunzel cried. “That’s the connection!”

            “It’s a term that usually means ‘sailor’ where I come from,” Moana explained, “but getting to know you all, it sounds like something we’ve all had to do: find our way. Me sailing the seas and knowing who I was, Elsa getting used to her powers, Anna learning about the world outside her castle gates, Ariel joining the human world, and Aqua figuring out how to become a Keyblade master when everything in her world…or worlds…was falling apart. We’ve all found our way! And that sounds exactly like what you’re trying to do now!”

            “Then let’s be the Wayfinders!” Rapunzel encouraged.

            “Catchy!” Eugene complimented.

            “So what happens AFTER Raps goes to the Heart of the World?” Cassandra asked.

            “She’ll help hold the balance of Light and Darkness in the worlds,” Aqua stated. “If she has to be a Wayfinder permanently, she’ll need to step in where the Princesses of Heart used to.”

            “What about saving the other seven?” Rapunzel asked.

            “It’ll be dangerous,” Aqua told her, “but it seems to be what everyone else wants to do.”

            “And this involves her leaving Corona,” Cassandra said dryly.

            “I don’t see how it wouldn’t,” Aqua replied.

            “Yeesh,” Eugene remarked. “That’s gonna be kind of a tall order. The king told her no-can-do about leaving the kingdom, let alone the whole world.”

            “Ever since my hair grew back,” Rapunzel explained, “Dad’s thought me going outside the kingdom walls would be too dangerous. There are guards following me EVERYWHERE. And I mean everywhere. Like, right now.”

            Aqua’s keen eyes could make out the flash of a silver helmet in the distance, and the clopping of a horse’s hooves nearby seemed a bit too in rhythm to be that of the civilians.

            Aqua held the Wayfinder in front of her face, sensing what it was telling her. “That’s going to be a problem,” she noted. “According to my Wayfinder, the Heart of the World is…” She turned and pointed back the way they’d come, over the bridge, out into the woods. “That way. Outside the walls.”

            “Well, either you’re going to have to be one Wayfinder short,” Cassandra huffed, “or we’re going to have to think of a plan.”

            “Could we break out – “ Anna began.

            “SSHHHHHH!” Cassandra hissed. “Keep your voices DOWN!”

            “Could we break out at night?” Anna whispered. “Will the guards still be patrolling then?”

            “They’ll assume Raps is sleeping in her room,” Cassandra answered, “and they won’t go in there during her private time. But they also know she’s busted out before, so they have the doors and windows covered.”

            “What if we just talked to your parents and explained the situation?” Elsa whispered.

            “I already tried explaining the other worlds,” Rapunzel replied. “They won’t believe me.”

            “What if we left now and shook off the guards with some kind of distraction?” Moana asked.

            “That could work,” Cassandra mused. “I know a back route out of here where they wouldn’t think to follow if they lost sight of Rapunzel in the first place.”

            “But that would have to be a pret-ty big distraction,” Eugene told the others.

            Elsa smirked. “I think I have it covered.”

            Within a few minutes, a great creature made entirely of snow, an exact duplicate of Marshmallow, was surrounded by every guard in the vicinity as it attempted to take pottery off a vendor’s wagon. “STOP!” one of the guards barked.

            The snow monster sheepishly held up a tiny coin in its massive fingers, indicating that it was willing to pay for everything.

            Cassandra, Aqua, Rapunzel, Eugene, Elsa, Anna, Moana, and Ariel bolted through the streets. “This could get dangerous,” Aqua warned. “Our enemy has also been creating monsters of Darkness. We call them the Shattered.”

            “Danger?” Rapunzel repeated. “WAIT!” She halted just long enough to trade money with a vendor on the side of the road, picking up a frying pan from the wagon. “Okay! I’m ready!” She rejoined the chase.

            “What are you planning to cook with that?” Moana asked.

            “It’s not for cooking,” Rapunzel explained. “It’s my personal favorite weapon!”

            “I WAS right the first time!” Ariel exclaimed with joy.

            Cassandra ushered the group to a small door in the kingdom’s wall. “There are boats docked on the beach you can use to cross to the mainland,” she explained. “Eugene and I will stay here and run damage control. But just so you know, you can’t just take off and leave forever.”

            “I won’t,” Rapunzel said. “We’ll go to the Heart of the World, and then we’ll figure out the plan from there.”

            “Stay safe, Blondie,” Eugene said lovingly.

            Rapunzel quickly pecked him on the lips, and then she, Aqua, Anna, Elsa, Ariel, and Moana filed through the door, bolting toward the boats.

            “So, Cass,” Eugene said as soon as the door was shut, “how dead can we both expect to be because of this plan?”

            “I’ll be fine,” Cassandra told him. “All I have to do is blame it on you.”

            “Har, har.”

* * *

 

            A cloaked figure walked the back streets of downtown Corona, clutching a golden trident in one hand and a thick leather-bound book in the other. She was aware that the next woman the Wayfinders sought would be upon this world, though she was not yet privy to the fact that they had found her and made tracks.

            Instead, she believed she had yet to stop them from finding Rapunzel. After all, they could not fulfill their destiny if one was missing. And the best way to eliminate that one from play was to take her entire kingdom down.

            Besides, the night goddess thought, once Corona was blanketed in Darkness, she could assume her true form instead of the one the daylight kept her trapped in.

* * *

 

            The Wayfinders’ path took them to the mainland and deep into the forest. They passed the time by trading histories. Aqua finally learned of how Rapunzel’s hair had grown back thanks to a visit to the site where the golden flower that had bequeathed the original hair had grown. Rapunzel, in turn, got to know each of her new traveling companions, finding awe in every new story.

            “You all have such amazing lives!” she gushed. “Sailing with gods, stopping raging blizzards, adventuring under the sea! I’d LOVE to be able to have as many adventures as you all do someday! Especially you, Aqua.”

            “The path I’ve taken has come with a heavy price,” Aqua told her. “But in the end, it’s been rewarding.”

            “You’ll be able to get out of Corona someday,” Moana assured Rapunzel. “You’ll be able to go as far as you can and chase after your dreams. It’s part of who you are.”

            “Besides, you don’t always need to listen to your old fuddy-duddy of a Daddy,” Ariel added. “Just because they say something’s too dangerous doesn’t mean it’s wrong for you. You’ve just gotta get out there and prove to them that you can take care of yourself!”

            “I wouldn’t take what your parents say TOO lightly,” Aqua argued. “They mean the best for you, and they want you to be safe.”

            “What am I going to tell them before I leave this world?” Rapunzel asked. “I think we all know I HAVE to go back after I get awakened. I know they just want me to be safe, and I know the reason they don’t believe in other worlds is…well, it’s just unbelievable. I don’t wanna scare them. But I know I need to join you so I can help out. And if I can get away, then don’t even think about trying to stop me from saving the other seven.”

            “Maybe you do just have to go without telling them,” Moana suggested. “I mean, you’ll be back eventually, right?”

            “Or you could just tell them as much of the truth as you can,” Elsa countered. “If they see you’re traveling with friends, they might be more willing to let you go.”

            “But to them, you’re not my friends yet,” Rapunzel groaned. “You’re just strangers. This is a whole big mess, and I don’t know what to do.”

            “Maybe we just need to focus on getting you awakened now,” Anna said, “and by the time we get you back to Corona, you’ll know what to say!”

            “I’m going with that plan,” Rapunzel decided.

            The group came to a ravine once spanned by a great stone bridge that had been pulverized. “Uh…are you sure this is the right way?” Rapunzel asked. “Because this is kind of the way into…a lot of danger.” She gestured across the bridge.

            Sharp, jet-black spikes made of stone protruded from the ground on the other side of the ravine, crowding a walking path.

            “That’s where Cass and I first stirred up the rocks,” Rapunzel explained.

            “That’s where the flower used to grow,” Aqua realized. “Right?”

            “Yeah,” Rapunzel answered.

            “It only makes sense that would be the Heart of the World,” Aqua mused. “That is where it all began.”

            “I think that means we have to risk it with the death rocks,” Anna commented.

            “It looks like there’s still enough room to walk if we’re careful,” Moana observed.

            “That’s if we can get over to the other side in the first place,” Rapunzel pointed out. “I don’t know how long the ravine is. Maybe we could walk around? If we had a tall enough tree, I could probably forge some kind of pulley and swinging rope with my hair, but we don’t – “

            “Let’s not make it more complicated than it has to be,” Elsa said rather smugly. She turned to the bridge, making a great outward pushing motion with her hands.

            Ice arced over the ravine, connecting one side to the other. The newly formed bridge sprouted tall columns that connected it to the ground below for support; delicately curling guard rails adorned either side.

            Rapunzel tentatively put a bare foot out onto the bridge. “A little chilly,” she observed, “but not as slippery as I thought!”

            The Wayfinders crossed the bridge of ice, stepping gently into the plain of black rocks. There was indeed enough room to move, but only with a dexterous amount of ducking, swerving, and occasionally turning sideways.

            They came at last upon the stone plaque that marked the location where the flower once grew; the black rocks formed a jagged frame around it and the cliffside plunged down toward a tranquil coastline behind it. “This is definitely the place,” Aqua confirmed.

            In response to Aqua’s presence, the outline of a Keyhole shimmered into view over top of the plaque.

            “Go to it,” Aqua encouraged. “As close as you can get.”

            “Okay,” Rapunzel said shakingly.

            An outcropping of black rocks nearby shuddered.

            “Earthquake!” Anna yelled, pointing to the sharp stones.

            “That wasn’t an earthquake,” Moana told her. “It JUST shook those rocks.”

            The rocks trembled again, more and more violently.

            “Aqua?” Rapunzel whimpered. “AQUA?”

            The rocks erupted upward to reveal themselves to be the back of a much larger creature: a raven-colored hedgehog, the size of an elephant. It reared up on its hind legs, revealing a stark white Shattered sigil on its underbelly before crashing down onto the ground, shaking it so that the Wayfinders could feel it.

            “Okay, normally I think hedgehogs are cute,” Rapunzel cried, “but NOT THAT ONE!”

            Anna drew her sword and rushed.

            “DON’T!” Rapunzel yelled.

            Anna didn’t know why Rapunzel was warning her away, but she knew enough to listen; she backpedaled quickly as the hedgehog slowly advanced, giving a shrill roar.

            “The rocks are unbreakable!” Rapunzel called out to Anna. “Your sword will just shatter!”

            “But my ice won’t,” Elsa muttered, turning her full attention onto the beast.

            The hedgehog made to break into a run, but soon found its lower half adhered to the ground by an encasing of ice. With a squeal, it wriggled, breaking the ice that held it back into chips. Elsa cast even more ice to keep the creature sealed. “I don’t know if this will work for long!” she announced.

            “RAPUNZEL!” Aqua yelled. “THE HEART! NOW!”

            Rapunzel forced her way past the spiny rocks that surrounded the plaque, placing both her hands within the Keyhole’s outline. The moment she did, she felt the calm wash over her; the noises of the hedgehog cracking through the ice were distant and muffled.

            “It’s going to be okay,” she muttered. She shut her eyes.

            And then they immediately snapped open. While the view before her physical eyes was the same as before, her mind was filling with bright new colors and landscapes, the likes of which she’d never painted, and she knew these were realms she had never visited.

            “YES!” Moana yelled as she saw Rapunzel’s body glow with light. “She’s doing it! YOU’RE DOING IT!”

            The glow washed away; Rapunzel made her way back to Aqua’s side. “Okay, I’m awake,” she announced. “But what are we going to do about THAT?” She pointed to the hedgehog, which was still locked in battle with Elsa, unable to proceed but breaking apart its ice holdings all the time.

            “If it’s unbreakable,” Anna realized, “I was right about the shark. They ARE getting stronger!”

            “There might be something we can try,” Aqua realized. “The Princesses of Heart were able to harness the power of the Light within them, and it was stronger if more of them worked together. The five of you might be able to overpower the Shattered with light!”

            “Let’s try!” Moana crowed, immediately seizing Ariel’s right hand. Rapunzel took ahold of Ariel’s left, and Anna grabbed onto Rapunzel’s free hand.

            “Elsa!” Anna called out. “We need you!”

            “You’ll have to try without me!” Elsa yelled back. “If I stop freezing it, it’ll run you all down first!”

            “Then let’s try,” Ariel said with a firm nod.

            She dug down deep inside, as did Anna, Moana, and Rapunzel. Each found a solid core of light within herself, surrounding the heart. Where before, it would have seemed like an inconceivable task, it was now instinctive for the four to bring that light out into the open. A sphere of Light formed in the air before them, charging, growing ever larger.

            When the ball of Light became as big as the hedgehog’s head, Aqua yelled, “That’ll be enough!”

            “Elsa!” Anna cried. “MOVE!”

            Elsa lifted her skirts and bolted. Just as the hedgehog crashed through the ice, Anna, Moana, Rapunzel, and Ariel willed the sphere of light forward to collide with it. The hedgehog was thrown back, over the edge of the cliff, falling until it hit the shallow water below. Upon impact with the ground beneath the water, it became gray and black stone, cracking into hundreds of jagged pieces.

            Rapunzel wiped her brow; “Phew. Is this the kind of thing that happens to you all the time?”

            “Ever since all this Wayfinder business started,” Anna confirmed.

            “They started out easy to defeat,” Aqua recalled, “but they’ve been getting stronger.”

            “It’s a good thing we have been, too,” Moana said with a decisive nod.

            A cold wind whipped over the Wayfinders, and it seemed to pull the dark of night along with it, spreading a black sky out over what had once been soft blue like a thick blanket. It rolled past the ravine, down over Corona, and off into the distant horizon.

            “No,” Aqua breathed.

            “It can’t be night already,” Rapunzel scoffed. “It was just three in the afternoon!”

            “This isn’t an ordinary nightfall,” Aqua said somberly. “This is the Darkness. The worlds turning from day to night.”

            Horror washed over Rapunzel. “I have to find out if my family is okay,” she gasped. “I have to find out if EUGENE is okay. We have to get back!”

            “I can rush you there on my Keyblade skimmer,” Aqua offered, “but everyone else will have to catch up.”

            Rapunzel shook her head. “Not after that hedgehog thing. We shouldn’t split up. We’ll just have to go as fast as we can on foot.”

 

* * *

 

            The moon had risen and was the only feature of the sky over Corona, barely lighting it. The Wayfinders charged over the bridge onto the island, barreling up the streets.

            It didn’t take them until reaching the castle to learn that something beyond the dark sky was horribly wrong.

            “Are you all seeing this?” Anna asked. “Is that real? Please tell me that’s just street art.”

            It seemed as though the streets were studded with granite sculptures of the townspeople, in the act of conversing with each other or staffing vendor wagons.

            “That isn’t art,” Rapunzel said in terror. “I think…those are the people of Corona!”

            “They were turned to stone?” Ariel gasped.

            “It reminds me of the Shattered,” Elsa observed.

            “No…no, no, please…” Rapunzel rushed from stone person to stone person. “Please don’t be stone. Please wake up. Do something. PLEASE!” She sprinted toward the castle at top speed.

            “Rapunzel, WAIT!” Aqua yelled, breaking into a run to catch up. The others followed suit.

            Rapunzel barged into the throne room of the castle to find her parents apparently locked in conversation with each other, frozen as stone statues. “Mom!” she cried, tears welling up in her eyes. “Dad…”

            The other Wayfinders filed into the room. “Oh, no,” Aqua breathed. “Rapunzel, I…I’m so sorry…”

            Without a word, Rapunzel turned and shoved past the others, out of the throne room.

            “RAPUNZEL!” Aqua yelled, and the group was off again.

            They came to a stop down a side hallway, where Rapunzel was found kneeling on the floor, sobbing into her hands. A stone person stood to either side of her. One was the likeness of Cassandra. The other was Eugene.

            “Eugene,” Rapunzel wailed. “If my hair was still magic, I could save him, but it isn’t and I can’t…I don’t know what to do…Mom and Dad and Cassandra and Eugene…”

            Anna stepped forward, kneeling by Rapunzel’s side and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Hey,” she said reassuringly. “It’ll be okay. We can fix this. We always find a way to fix things!”

            “This isn’t the first world where something like this has happened, either,” Aqua pointed out. “It may be the first case of petrification, but Arendelle is being covered in snow and ice, Motonui will be poisoned by the Darkness so that the people will have nothing to eat, and ships are sinking over Atlantica. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be hurt. I’m saying we have a lot to fight for. And we’re going to get it all back. Including your parents, Cassandra, and Eugene.”

            “Now…now I know how Varian felt,” Rapunzel choked through her tears. “Like nobody would help him while his father…” She couldn’t go on.

            “Varian?” Moana repeated, stepping in and kneeling next to Rapunzel and Anna.

            “I…can’t…” Rapunzel sobbed. “He’s probably stone now too…”

            “Well, please don’t feel like no one’s here for you,” Moana asserted, putting her hand on Rapunzel’s other shoulder. “Because we are.”

            Elsa knelt by the group as well. “We won’t let you lose your parents this way.”

            Ariel and Aqua joined the kneeling. Rapunzel leaned forward, and Moana caught her in an embrace. One by one, Elsa, Anna, Ariel, and Aqua added their arms around Rapunzel, and they stayed still and silent for a long while.

            Something tugged at Aqua’s consciousness. She backed off, reaching into her pocket for the Wayfinder. “I know where we’re going next,” she announced. “I know it’s hard, but…we need to keep moving.”

            The others stood. “I know,” Rapunzel affirmed. “I’m sorry I – “

            “Don’t ever apologize for the way you feel,” Elsa said sternly.

            Rapunzel steeled herself, wiping her tears on a sleeve. “We can get them back,” she said weakly. “Whatever this curse is, we’ll break it. And all the other curses, too.” She nodded toward Aqua. “Show me the way.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As far as Tangled continuity goes, this is set immediately after the Tangled: The Series episode "Queen for a Day" and can be considered canon divergent from that point.


	6. Chapter 6

A night-black horse with white edges galloped through the highland forests. The rider on his back drew a wooden bow, aiming an arrow up at a wooden target that had been hung from an upper tree a long time ago and already bore several arrows. It didn’t do to get rusty. The rider loosed the arrow, and it hit home.

            She drew to prepare for the next target she’d hung on the route, but her horse’s sudden halt jostled her, causing her to drop the arrow. She clung to the bow with one hand and the reins with the other, not wanting to be thrown. “What’s the matter, Angus?” she asked.

            Peering around the horse’s head, she took notice of a small blue light, like a disembodied flame, dancing in her path.

            “A wisp!” she gasped. “Angus, we’ve got ta follow it!”

            Angus shook his head, taking several steps.

            “Ya big ol’ coward,” the archer laughed, dismounting. “If ye don’t follow the wisps, then I will.”

            Beyond the blue light of the will o’ the wisp, another danced some feet away, and another still behind that, forming a path that the young archer could easily follow.

            It was said that a will o’ the wisp could lead you to your fate, and the young archer had already been led that way by the wisps once, not too long ago. This time, they were about to lead her to something bigger.

 

* * *

 

            The forests were thick in this world, somewhat reminding Moana of her island, but the sort of vegetation was entirely different. The paths between the trees were made up of uneven earth, causing Elsa to occasionally stumble on her shoes.

            “I’m beginning to think Moana and Rapunzel had the right idea by going barefoot,” Elsa laughed.

            “Sort of,” Rapunzel countered. “We still have to keep an eye out not to step on – ow! – sharp rocks.”

            “Or broken sticks,” Moana added.

            “It seems weird to think there’s a kingdom hidden in all this forest,” Anna commented.

            “It looks like an easy place for Shattered to hide,” Aqua observed. “Be on the lookout.” Her Keyblade shimmered into hand.

            Moana kept a tight grip on her oar, Rapunzel held her frying pan ready at her side, and Anna lay a hand casually on the grip of her sword.

            “I hear something coming,” Ariel announced.

            The Wayfinders braced for action as the sound of rustling through the trees grew nearer.

            The source, however, revealed itself to be something far more harmless than a Shattered. A teenage girl, clad in green, her red curls exploding from her head and cascading down over her shoulders, broke through the tree line to see the Wayfinders; she held a bow in one hand and carried a host of arrows in a sling over her back. “It’s ye?” she said upon finding the others. “Ye’re what the wisps were leadin’ to?”

            “Wisps?” Moana repeated.

            “I think I’ve heard of these creatures,” Aqua realized. “Will o’ the wisps. On some worlds, they’re dangerous, but on others, they’re friendly spirits.”

            “They led me all the way here to ye,” the girl announced. “What’s so special about ye?”

            “I think we should discuss that after an introduction,” Aqua said sternly.

            “All right,” the girl agreed. “I am Merida. Firstborn daughter of King Fergus of DunBroch. And ye would be?”

            “My name is Aqua,” Aqua replied. And one by one, the others chimed in:

            “I’m Moana.”

            “Anna of Arendelle. Hey, I actually kept it short that ti – “

            “My name is Elsa.”

            “And I’m Ariel!”

            “Rapunzel.”

            “Hardly ever ye see women hikin’ all the way out here in the highland,” Merida commented. “Did yer mothers not make ye stay home and take up housework like embroidery? I’ve got to say I’m jealous of ye. Made my peace with the embroidery, I have, but I’d still rather be out adventurin’.”

            Aqua felt for the Wayfinder. This was the girl, all right. “We’ve been on many adventures,” Aqua told Merida. “And actually, it turns out we’re looking for you.”

            “For me?” Merida gestured to herself with her free hand. “What for?” It was then that she got a good look at what Aqua carried in her hand. “No! Is that wha’ I think it is?”

            “This?” Aqua held out the Keyblade.

            “Yes, that!” Merida confirmed. “I’ve heard fairy stories about the people who fought with key-shaped swords! Seems mighty inconvenient to have your sword be shaped like a key. How do ye manage with the blade bein’ so small?”

            “It helps with accuracy,” Aqua told Merida. “With a blade like this, you only ever cut what you want to. It’s harder to accidentally hurt a friend with careless swinging. But what do you know about the Keyblade?”

            “Well, not much,” Merida admitted. “The stories were very vague. But they spoke of these…Keybearers comin’ down from the stars to fight monsters.” She looked up to Aqua’s eyes. “You from the stars?”

            “Actually, yes,” Aqua confirmed. “So are my friends. We call ourselves the Wayfinders.”

            “Wayfinders,” Merida repeated. “So yer all about findin’ yer way.”

            “Exactly!” Moana confirmed.

            “So she’s it?” Anna asked. “She’s the one?”

            “I’m the one what?” Merida put her hand on her hip indignantly.

            “Well,” Rapunzel explained, “we’ve been traveling between the worlds – between the stars – looking for people to replace the seven Princesses of Heart.”

            “The Princesses of Heart were seven women who were pure of heart,” Aqua added. “They helped keep the balance of Light and Darkness in the worlds. But now they’ve gone missing, and the worlds have picked out seven new women to replace them.”

            “An’ ye think I’m one of these Princesses of Heart,” Merida said sarcastically. “I hate to break it to ye, but I hardly want to be a princess, and I’m sure not pure of heart.”

            “That doesn’t matter,” Aqua said encouragingly. “It isn’t about purity of heart anymore, but strength of heart. We need to keep that balance to stop the Darkness from taking over. And for that, we need you.”

            “No ye don’t!” Merida said defensively. “I’m not signin’ up to be some princess for the stars! I’ve trouble enough bein’ princess of me own kingdom, thank ye very much!”

            “You don’t understand,” Aqua insisted. “Darkness is coming to the worlds. Day is turning to night, storms are raging, monsters are appearing, and people are turning to stone. If you don’t help us – “

            “Then I guess that’s your problem,” Merida spat.

            “What is wrong with you?” Aqua snapped. “Don’t you even care what happens to the worlds if you don’t help? What about your own world?”

            “Listen,” Merida sighed. “I know what comes with the title of ‘princess.’ You want me to go around bowin’ an’ wearin’ corsets an’ makin’ decisions I’m sure to regret.”

            That last statement caused Rapunzel to look down at her feet sheepishly.

            “I told ye!” Merida insisted. “I’ve trouble enough takin’ care of me own kingdom! An’ if ye tell me ye want me to be betrothed to some prince, I’ll be sick right here!”

            “The will o’ the wisps LED you to us,” Aqua argued. “Doesn’t that tell you something? You HAVE to come with us. You don’t have a choice. Yes, this means you’ll have to be diplomatic to people of other worlds if you have to fill in for the original Princesses of Heart. And yes, it means you’ll have to make hard decisions. But it’s something all the rest of us have already done. And if you give it a chance – “

            “Give it a chance!” Merida spat. “Like DunBroch isn’t me chance already! I didnae want this! I want to be in charge of my fate, not have some destiny forced onto me!” She turned on a heel. “I’m goin’ to go find Angus. He knew what he was doin’ when he didn’t follow the wisps.”

            “MERIDA!” Aqua barked.

            “I’m no’ listenin’!” Merida called back over her shoulder before storming off.

            Aqua grit her teeth. “I thought the hardest part of this would be telling you about other worlds. She knows all about it, but she just doesn’t want to help. Doesn’t she care?”

            “Well, she seemed a little younger than me,” Moana pointed out. “That might make her the youngest Wayfinder. And that means she’s probably a little…immature.”

            “You did talk to her like a scolding mother,” Elsa added.

            “Was there a problem with that?” Aqua snapped.

            “Just that you made being a Wayfinder sound like a burden,” Rapunzel observed. “Also, you only used the team name once. The whole ‘princess’ thing threw her off.”

            “You should have told her about all the fun we’ve been having on our adventures!” Ariel insisted. “Sure, we’ve had a lot of downs, but we sang together, we ate candy from other worlds, we all danced together…”

            “Maybe you shouldn’t talk to her so much like a mom,” Anna suggested, “but like a friend!”

            “I thought I was talking to her like…” Aqua shook her head. “We can’t just let her walk off. How about when we find her, I just let the rest of you do the talking?”

            “Proooooobably a good idea,” Anna confirmed.

            “First, we have to find where she went,” Rapunzel reiterated.

            “She is a literal princess,” Aqua stated. “Her home can’t be too hard to find once we figure out where DunBroch is.”

            “The problem is figuring out where DunBroch is,” Elsa commented.

            “Could it be the Heart of the World?” Moana wondered out loud. “The Wayfinder charm would lead us right to it!”

            “I don’t think we can risk that,” Aqua said with a shake of her head. “It might lead us too far off our path.”

            “Hey!” Anna cried suddenly. “What’s that?”

            She pointed to where a dancing blue light hovered in the forest ahead.

            “A will o’ the wisp!” Aqua recognized. “If they were what led Merida to us…”

            “Then they might lead us to Merida!” Rapunzel and Ariel said as one.

            The Wayfinders set out to follow the trail of blue lights that shimmered through the dark spots of the forest.

 

* * *

 

            DunBroch was a very gray kingdom, fenced in by walls, and outside of that, heavy forest and the sea on one side. Despite its lack of color in stone, it was given a different sort of color by the people that packed its streets, trading wares and making conversation. At its center, a great stone fortress rose up.

            “That has to be where Merida lives!” Rapunzel cried.

            Thunder rumbled; the skies turned gray. Drops of rain slowly hit the stone below, cuing the townspeople to seek shelter.

            “I hope this is an ordinary storm,” Moana said warily.

            The sound of rapidly galloping horse’s hooves came into earshot, followed by an “Agh, not ye again!”

            The Wayfinders all turned to see Merida dismounting Angus. “I already told ye no!” Merida insisted. “I’m no’ bein’ yer princess!”

            “We just wanted to talk to you,” Aqua insisted. “Actually, THEY wanted to talk to you.”

            “Merida,” Anna began as the rain fell faster and harder, soaking the hair of everyone present, “we actually don’t call ourselves the Princesses of Heart. We – “

            “Can we at least move this inside?” Merida sighed. “I don’t suppose ye have anywhere to stay in town, since ye came from the stars.”

            The Wayfinders shook their heads.

            “Me parents’ll be furious with me if I don’t invite ye to come inside, then,” Merida sighed. “Come on. Let’s go.”

 

* * *

 

            The interior of Castle DunBroch was dark, lit by torches that didn’t quite reach into every shadowy corner and curve. Merida led the Wayfinders through a veritable labyrinth until they reached a room where a wooden table was set up with plates of various meats and treats. Seated at one side of the table were a muscular man with facial hair as bright red as Merida’s and a tall, stately woman who wore her long brown hair streaked with gray down and loose. At the other side were three small identical boys, their curly hair the same red as the man’s and Merida’s.

            “Merida?” the woman said in surprise. “Ye seem to have brought several guests.”

            “’Tis rainin’,” Merida explained, “and they’d nowhere else to go.”

            “Had we known,” the woman went on, “we would ‘ave set a bigger table.”

            “It’s okay,” Aqua said. “We don’t need any food – “

            “Actually,” Anna brought up, “I’m kind of starving.”

            “Well, come sit!” the man encouraged. “There’s room enough for at least one!”

            “Thank you!” Anna planted herself next to the boys and began loading up a plate with food.

            “She filled up on candy and dessert not that long ago,” Rapunzel whispered to Elsa. “How much can she eat?”

            “Anna can be a bottomless pit sometimes,” Elsa replied.

            “What is this?” Anna asked as she stuffed her face with haggis. “It stinks, but it’s really good. Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, don’t tell me. I’m not sure I want to know.”

            “Move aside!” Merida sat down next to Anna, placing her bow up on the table before taking a plate and filling it with pastries.

            “Merida!” the woman scolded. “No weapons on the table!”

            Merida rolled her eyes as she moved the bow to the floor. “Anyway, this is me da, King Fergus of DunBroch, and me mum, Queen Elinor of DunBroch. And these are me little brothers, Harris, Hubert, and Hamish. If you don’t watch ‘em, they’ll steal right off yer plate.”

            “Hey!” Anna swiped her plate away from Hubert, who had tried to grab a handful of haggis.

            “And who might you be?” Fergus asked the Wayfinders.

            “My name is Aqua,” Aqua answered. “My companions are Moana, Anna, Elsa, Rapunzel, and Ariel.”

            “Show them,” Merida beckoned. “Yer key from the stars.”

            “What key from the stars?” Elinor asked.

            Aqua hadn’t been sure if it was a good idea to bring up the Keyblade in front of Merida’s family. However, after that command, she couldn’t deny what she had. She called up the Keyblade, holding it out.

            “It looks…familiar,” Elinor realized. “I do think I recall seeing something like that before.”

            “You know the stories, Elinor!” Fergus insisted. “All about the brave warriors who wielded the key-shaped swords! What kind of swordsmanship can ye even have with a key, anyhow? It’s such a small blade!”

            “That’s what I said!” Merida agreed.

            “It’s about accuracy,” Aqua reiterated.

            “Yes, I’ve heard the tales,” Elinor confirmed, “but I’ve also seen a key like that somewhere before. If I could only just remember…” Her eyes widened. “Ah, yes, I remember now! After dinner, I’ll show ye.”

            “Come on!” Fergus beckoned. “There should be room for ya if some of ya stand or kneel ‘round.”

            “Well…that meat is starting to smell…interesting,” Moana admitted. “I’m a little hungry.”

            Soon, the rest of the Wayfinders had crowded around the table for a light meal.

            “So what brought ye to DunBroch?” Fergus asked. “Did ye wish to see the sights? Visit the beautiful highlands?”

            “It’s actually about Merida,” Aqua explained. “We wanted her to come with us on a journey.”

            “Go with you?” Elinor asked. “But where to?”

            “To the stars, Mum,” Merida answered. “Where they want me to be a princess and have all these burdens on my shoulders about keepin’ balance. I donae want any part of it.”

            “Well, we explained it to you wrong the first time,” Anna brought up.

            “First of all, we don’t really call ourselves ‘princesses,’” Rapunzel explained. “I mean, most of us are, but that’s not really what we’re about. We’re Wayfinders first.”

            “We’ve had a lot of adventures,” Ariel continued. “Things don’t always go our way, and we’ve had to do difficult things. But we’ve also sang together and danced together and laughed together…we’ve seen amazing things!”

            “We’re friends,” Moana added. “And if you’re okay with it, we want you to be our friend, too. You don’t have to do anything alone.”

            “Sure, there’s going to be diplomacy involved eventually,” Anna continued, “but right now, we’re all about the adventure. And you don’t have to be perfect. Some of us don’t even wear shoes!”

            “I never had to wear shoes,” Moana brought up. “That’s just in your kingdom.”

            “Rapunzel’s kingdom is full of people who wear shoes, too,” Anna pointed out, “and she doesn’t wear them. The point is, right now, we don’t care whether or not you set your bow on the table. We just care about if you have a strong heart and you want to help people.”

            “Well, now ye’re makin’ it all sound like fun an’ games,” Merida observed. “So which is it? Fun an’ games, or a big responsibility?”

            “It’s both,” Elsa told her. “Not to mention the danger. If you come with us, you will eventually have to face monsters and villains.”

            “Danger?” Merida perked up. “Monsters an’ villains? Ya shoulda said so from the start! That sounds like my kind of adventure!”

            “So will you come with us?” Aqua asked.

            “I still donae know,” Merida replied.

            Aqua looked to Elinor and Fergus. “I know it might seem strange, that we’ve come here asking your daughter to follow us on an unknown journey – “

            “Yer darn right, it is,” Fergus grumbled.

            “I know I’m generally the last to approve of Merida riding into danger,” Elinor said, “but actually, I trust them.”

            “Why’s that, Elinor?” Fergus asked.

            “After dinner,” Elinor bade him wait.

 

* * *

 

            When the meal was finished, Elinor led the entire company up several flights of stairs and down narrow hallways until she reached the top of a tall tower. There, she pushed open the wooden door to reveal the upper room. “I recalled where I’d seen that key,” she explained, crossing the room. She shoved a large wardrobe aside with some difficulty, revealing a tapestry. The lack of light in the room made it impossible to discern details. “Curse this darkness,” Elinor muttered. “I need to light a lamp…”

            “Here!” Rapunzel held out her hand, drawing upon the Light within until a small sphere of it appeared. “Let’s try this!”

            Ariel, Moana, Anna, and Elsa produced lights of their own. They held the spheres up to illuminate the tapestry.

            At each corner, a different warrior was embroidered, but each held a Keyblade. In the center, seven women held hands around a glowing heart.

            “It is the same key!” Fergus observed.

            Elinor touched the women in their ring. “Is this…what Merida is part of?” she asked.

            “Yes,” Aqua said with a nod. “At least right now. The first seven are in trouble. Merida might only need to be a substitute for a little while until they can be saved.”

            “Then I trust you to take care of her,” Elinor said.

            “But I still donae know if I WANT to go!” Merida protested.

            “Yer highness!” a shrill voice called from down the hall. “YER HIGHNESS!”

            “What is it, Maudie?” Fergus asked as he turned to face the castle’s maid.

            “B-b-b-b-b-b…” Maudie stammered. “BEEEAAAARS! Bears running through the streets, attacking everyone who dare be outside! Bears tryin’ to break into the castle!”

            “How many bears, Maudie?” Fergus demanded. “HOW MANY?”

            “At least a h-h-h-h-HUNDRED!” Maudie screamed.

 

* * *

 

            Outside the castle, a swarm of what looked like black bears shoved at doors, chased down people who hadn’t yet found shelter, and tried to scale the walls of the great fortress. All the while, a torrent of rain beat down upon them.

            “It’s probably the Shattered!” Moana realized.

            “Let’s go!” Ariel cried, forging ahead into the fray.

            “WAIT!” Fergus called as he drew a broadsword from his belt. “WHERE ARE YE GOIN’?”

            Ariel kicked one of the bears up under the chin; she peeked under its neck to spy the Shattered sigil on its chest. She gave it a swift kick to the side of the head. This disoriented it long enough for Anna to descend upon it and impale it from behind with her sword, causing it to fall to pieces.

            “Aqua!” Moana yelled. “Let’s go!” She rushed one of the bears, smacking it with her oar. Aqua followed up by spinning into it, blade outward.

            Elsa froze bears in their tracks before impaling them with ice, transforming them to stone dust. Rapunzel loosened her hair from its braid, throwing it outward and catching a bear by the neck before slamming her frying pan into its head. Merida, seeing an opportunity, quickly nocked an arrow and loosed it into the chest of the bear Rapunzel had weakened; it crumbled.

            Fergus led his army out into the streets with a wild yell, and they set about bringing down as many of the bear-shaped Shattered as they could find.

            Merida and Aqua ended up back-to-back on their quest to bring down bears. “This is what’s been happening to the worlds!” Aqua told Merida. “This is what’s going to keep happening if you don’t come with us!”

            “There are too many bears!” Merida moaned. “We cannae stop them all!”

            “She’s right!” Ariel said as she joined Aqua and Merida’s huddle. “We have to go, now!”

            “An’ leave my da?” Merida replied.

            “What else can we do?” Aqua asked.

            “I…I…I donae know!” Merida admitted. “There are too many!”

            She broke away, firing at bear after bear until she reached Fergus’ side. “Da!” she cried. “There are too many! Ye’ll never defeat them!”

            “I’ve got to try!” Fergus insisted. “Ye go on! Get to somewhere safe! Wherever the Wayfinders wish to bring ye, if ye trust them!”

            “But I cannae LEAVE ye!” Merida argued.

            “Ye have to!” Fergus told her as he decapitated another bear. “Take this if ye need!” He withdrew a smaller broadsword from his belt, handing it off to Merida.

            She sheathed it at her side. “I love ye!” she cried.

            “Tell yer mum too!” Fergus commanded. “She needs to know!”

            Merida bolted back toward Elinor, who waited with the door only cracked slightly open. “Mum!” Merida called out to her. “I’ve got to leave! Ye need to know I love ye!”

            “And I love ye too!” Elinor responded. “I’ll be with ye always, even when we’re apart! Donae forget that!”

            Merida rushed to Aqua and Ariel, who had teamed up on three bears and brought them all down only for five more to reveal themselves waiting in the wings. “We’ve got to go!” Merida insisted.

            “WAYFINDERS!” Aqua held up the charm, catching the attention of Rapunzel, Anna, Elsa, and Moana. “WE NEED TO MOVE!”

            The Wayfinders all wished they could stay long enough to end the tide of Shattered, but it seemed unending, and they knew they couldn’t delay awakening Merida any longer. They gathered around Aqua, and they fought their way through the bears until they reached the edge of the kingdom, bolting for the direction in which the Heart of the World apparently lay.

* * *

 

            The skies had only gotten darker overhead, thick with clouds. Aqua wondered if there was daylight behind those clouds or starless night as they had seen on Corona.

            Though the woods they pressed; no wisps appeared, as they had no need for them. The Wayfinder charm guided Aqua, who the others all followed diligently.

            “I’m sorry,” Merida said softly. “I guess I didnae realize. When ye talked about the Darkness…”

            “It’s all right,” Aqua sighed. “I’m…sorry if I came on a bit strong when we met.”

            “I acted like a bratty child,” Merida apologized.

            “And I acted like an overbearing parent,” Aqua rebutted.

            “I know where we’re goin’, by the way,” Merida brought up.

            “Where?” Rapunzel asked.

            “Me mum and me found this place by mistake once,” Merida explained. “A different time I was selfish. I sort of…turned her into a bear.”

            “Now THAT sounds like a story,” Ariel commented.

            “I’ll tell ye all about it later,” Merida went on. “Anyway, me mum always used to tell me a story about our kingdom. It was built on the ruins of another kingdom that existed long ago. When the king died, he left his kingdom to his four sons, but one of them wanted power over the others. So he sought out a witch to give him the strength of ten men, but she ended up turnin’ him into the dread bear Mor’du. He slaughtered the people of his kingdom an’ left it to rot. Mum and I found the ruins of it, and I remember the way. That’s where we’re goin’.” She smiled. “Ye know, it’s a lot like yer name says. I spent a lot of time back then findin’ me way. I’m fairly certain I’ve found it now, but sometimes, I forget that there needs to be a balance between bein’ true to meself and doin’ what’s best for everybody else.”

            “That’s what really matters about being a leader,” Rapunzel told her. “Not the bowing or the dresses or whether or not you wear shoes. It’s knowing when to think about the people you care about and do what’s best for them.”

            The group reached the summit of a hill, where the ruins of a rotund fortress awaited them. “This is a ruined kingdom, all right,” Aqua commented.

            “What are we lookin’ for, again?” Merida asked.

            “The Heart of the World,” Aqua answered. “Where the Keyhole rests. It’s the center of the world, where everyone else’s heart is connected and the story of the world begins.”

            “I think it’s down inside,” Merida theorized. “Give me a minute, will ye?”

            She glanced around, locating a hole in the stone floor. She dropped deftly into it, setting her eyes upon a stone sculpture depicting four brothers; the fourth had been rent from the stone with an axe, marking him as separate from the rest of his family forever. To Merida’s surprise, she could make out something new about this sculpture: a glittering shape that hadn’t been there last time.

            “I THINK I FOUND SOMETHIN’!” she called up. “IT LOOKS LIKE A KEYHOLE, ALL RIGHT!”

            “THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR!” Moana called back down.

            “Hmm…” Merida reached out, putting her hands on the stone and waiting to see what would happen. First, she felt the bliss: her inner fire quenched for just a moment as she relaxed against the structure of the world. Then landscapes flying by her, faster than if she were riding through them upon Angus’ back.

            She snapped back from the stone, feeling tingles throughout her body. “SOMETHIN’ HAPPENED!” she called up through the hole.

            “YOU DID IT!” Ariel called back down.

            Merida positioned herself beneath the hole, where she saw the others looking down to her. “Gimme a minute to get back up,” she requested, seeking out a pile of stone upon which she could get a foothold.

            “Try this!” Rapunzel threw the length of her hair down the hole. “Climb up!”

            “Won’t that hurt yer head?” Merida asked.

            “I’m used to it,” Rapunzel replied.

            Merida grasped the hair like a rope, climbing up as the other Wayfinders held the base of Rapunzel’s hair steady. At the top, Merida clambered up onto the stone floor, letting Rapunzel go.

            “Did you do it?” Anna asked excitedly. “Did you get awakened?”

            Merida held out her hand. A sphere of Light glowed upon it. “This answer yer question?”


	7. Chapter 7

The voyage to the homeworld of the final Wayfinder was the longest yet. To pass the time, everyone traded stories once more for Merida’s benefit while also learning about the escapade of how she had transformed Elinor into a bear.

            “Can I ask you a question?” Anna inquired.

            “Ye already did,” Merida told her. “But ask anyway.”

            “I know you aren’t ready to get married by a long shot,” Anna said, “but if you were going to get married eventually, what kind of person would you want to marry?”

            “Donae even talk about marriage to me!” Merida huffed. “I donae ever want to think about it! Not till I’m ready, and I might never be ready!”

            “So you haven’t even thought about it at all?” Anna asked. “Not even who you’d want to marry, necessarily. Just who you’d want to date.”

            “Anna,” Aqua scolded, “stop pestering her about it.”

            “All right,” Merida sighed. “This is nae definitive, but sometimes I think, if I absolutely HAD to get married, what would I want him to be like? An’ I think…someone with more brain over brawn. I donae care if he slayed a million foes on the battlefield. Can he have an intelligent conversation? Does he know how things work? Maybe a little shy. I donae want him to be too overbearing. And someone kind. Someone who’ll treat Angus like a member of the family. And I guess I have thought about romance sometimes. I had a dream once where I was flyin’ on a dragon’s back with a perfect gentleman. I enjoyed the dream while I was havin’ it, but I thought it was perfectly disgustin’ when I woke up. So there ya have it.”

            “I totally get the dream thing,” Anna sympathized. “There was this one time, before I met Kristoff and way before I met Hans, I dreamed I was dating a guy with dog ears. So then for about a year, I used to daydream about falling in love with a man who had dog ears. Isn’t that ridiculous? So, what about you, Elsa? I can’t believe it. All the catching up we’ve done, and I’ve never asked you about who you’d want to date.”

            “Well…I don’t think about it that much either,” Elsa confessed. “It’s not a high priority for me. But I guess…it might be nice to be with someone who knows how it feels to have powers like mine. Someone I could talk about it with. And I’ve spent so much time alone, hating myself, that I think I need someone who’s all about having fun. I know I can be a bit serious, so I feel like that should balance it out.”

            “I like it!” Anna complimented. “Let’s see…” She pointed at Rapunzel. “You’e with somebody.” Then Ariel. “YOU’RE married.” Then Aqua. “What about you?”

            “I…I’ve thought about it before,” Aqua said shakily. “But…it’s complicated.” Thoughts crossed her mind of the relationship that would never work. Of a heated argument, a betrayal, wispy blonde hair, flying sparks. Ships that passed in the night; how had she ever even slightly fallen for someone who so antagonized her, and so deserved to be antagonized in return? “I’m not talking about it.”

            “But – “

            “I’m not talking about it, Anna.”

            “Okay,” Anna said sheepishly. “That leaves Moana. Who would you want to marry? Or date.”

            “Well,” Moana mused, “I think I’d like someone…adventurous. Someone fun. Someone who could see the beauty in the worlds and explore it all with me.”

            “That sounds wonderful,” Ariel commented.

            “It – “ Moana suddenly flushed; she realized who she’d been describing. How long had things been that way? “Y…yeeaaaaaah. So, Merida! If we get some down time, how about you show the rest of us how to shoot a bow?”  
            “It’s nae easy,” Merida warned. “But if ye’re up for it, I could play teacher.”

            “We’re almost at the next world,” Aqua announced.

            “I wonder who the last Wayfinder is,” Rapunzel babbled. “What do you think she’s like? What kind of palace do you think she lives in?”

 

* * *

 

            The Wayfinders stood outside the building that Aqua’s charm had led them to, looking up at its place among its neighbors on a crowded nighttime street. The sky above, thankfully, was still filled with stars.

            “This doesnae look like much of a palace,” Merida observed.

            “That’s because it’s not,” Rapunzel said, gesturing to a sign. “It’s just a restaurant CALLED ‘Tiana’s Palace.’”

            “The Wayfinder insists this is the place,” Aqua said with a slight shrug. “I guess we should go inside.”

            The interior of Tiana’s Palace was lavish, with a glimmering chandelier hovering above the multitude of spaced-out tables where people were served delectable-looking food. At the far end of the restaurant was a stage, upon which a band played upbeat jazz numbers.

            Moana did a double take upon seeing the stage. “Is…anybody else seeing this?”

            “That is definitely an alligator playing the trumpet,” Anna confirmed.

            “Well, we’ve all seen weirder,” Rapunzel reminded everyone.

            “I’m a little hungry,” Elsa informed the group. “It’s been a while since we had that…what was it again, Merida?”  
            “Haggis,” Merida replied. “Sheep’s stomach.”

            “Eewwww, no!” Anna groaned. “I told you not to tell me what it was!”

            “What?” Merida snapped. “It’s edible, is it nae?”

            “I think we could all use something to eat,” Aqua resolved. “Let’s find a table.”

            The seven crowded around a single table, looking over their menus. “I’ve never heard of any of this stuff before,” Anna observed. “What’s ‘jambalaya’? The name even SOUNDS delicious. Better than ‘haggis.’ Oh, how about ‘étoufée’?”

            “The only way to find out is to order it!” Ariel commented.

            “Hi there!” a pale, blonde woman wearing an apron greeted, flouncing up to the table. “What can I get y’all today?”

            “I don’t know what to try first!” Anna moaned. “How do I know which one’s the best?”

            “Why don’t we all order something different,” Rapunzel suggested, “and share a little bit off each other’s plates?”

            “Great idea!” Moana said enthusiastically. “Is there anything with pork in it?”

            “Well, we’ve got the red beans and rice served with a pork chop,” the blonde explained.

            “I’ll go with that!” Moana decided.

            Everyone else selected a dish, and the blonde woman hustled off.

            “When our food is delivered,” Aqua decided, “we should ask who Tiana is. Maybe she’s the one we’re looking for.”

            The blonde came back hoisting three dishes on one tray and four on another, a tray on each hand. “I got this!” she insisted. “Okay, now, let’s start with the gumbo…” She shakingly lowered one of the trays.

            “Let me help you with that.” Rapunzel stood up to brace the tray with her hands as it was lowered. Elsa stepped up to help lower the other tray.

            “Sorry, y’all,” the blonde sighed. “Waitressin’ ain’t even my job. I’m just helpin’ fill in ‘cause one of Tia’s staff called in sick.”

            “We were actually wondering about that,” Moana said as the dishes were distributed to the proper places. “Who is Tiana?”

            “Who is TIANA?” the blonde repeated. “Better be glad y’all didn’t say that when I had those trays in my hands, or I woulda dropped your food plumb on the floor! Everyone around here knows who Tiana is! Proprietor of the restaurant, head chef, and princess of Maldonia!”

            At this last statement, the Wayfinders let out a collective gasp.

            “Not to mention my best friend,” the blonde went on. “Wait a minute, does this mean y’all don’t recognize me? Lottie La Bouff? The La Bouff heiress?”

            “We’re new in town,” Rapunzel explained.

            “We’d like to talk to Tiana after dinner, if we can,” Aqua said. “Could a meeting be arranged?”

            “You wanna give her compliments already?” Lottie asked. “Y’all ain’t even touched your food yet.”

            “I don’t think we have to in order to give her a compliment,” Anna observed. “The smell alone is perfect! …There’s no sheep stomach in here, is there?”

            “Sheep stomach?” Lottie recoiled. “Yuck!”

            “Good enough for me!” Anna tucked into her food.

            “We actually wanted to ask her about something a little different,” Ariel clarified.

            “Well, all right,” Lottie said. “I’ll bring her over with the bill.”

            The food was nothing short of divine, and all found themselves satisfied when the meal was over. They didn’t have to wait long after finishing their food for Lottie to bring another woman to their table: of dark skin and dark hair, the latter of which was piled elegantly on top of her head, she was dressed in the simple garb of a chef, with a stained apron overlaid. “Greetings,” she said. “I heard y’all wanted to speak to me.”

            “You’re Tiana?” Ariel asked.

            “Sure am!” Tiana smiled.

            “’Scuse me,” Lottie muttered as she reached for the empty dishes. “Gotta clear y’all’s plates. Tia, was doin’ the dishes part of my deal?”

            “You don’t need to,” Tiana told her, “but it sure would help me out.”

            Lottie sighed. “Dishes it is, then.”

            “Lottie, you really don’t need to if you don’t wanna.”

            “Tia, what are friends for if not cleanin’ up dirty dishes in each other’s restaurants?” Lottie said with a playful nudge to Tiana’s forearm. She piled up the dishware before hustling off to the kitchen.

            “So,” Tiana said, “what do y’all wanna talk to me about?”

            “Well…” Moana began, “it’s…kind of hard to explain.”

            Aqua decided the best approach would be the one that had worked on Elinor. She summoned her Keyblade, holding it aloft. “Do you recognize this?”

            “It looks like a weapon,” Tiana scolded, “and I’d prefer you not bring weapons into my establishment.” She glanced around at the oar propped up against Moana’s seat, the swords strapped to Merida and Anna, the bow lying on the table. “Though I see it’s too late for that.”

            “Sorry.” Aqua dismissed the blade. “But have you ever seen a weapon like it before?”

            “Well, no,” Tiana said. “Can’t say that I have.”

            “Then this is going to be very hard to explain,” Aqua sighed. The Wayfinder was assuring her that she was talking to the right person. “We need you to come with us for a very important journey, but…I don’t know if you’ll believe it when we say where we’re going.”

            “Well, try me,” Tiana said, her curiosity piqued.

            “We’re from other worlds,” Ariel blurted out.

            Tiana was taken aback. “Other worlds?” she repeated. “You’re right. That is hard to believe.”

            “So the fate of the worlds is at stake,” Anna babbled, “because there were these seven women who were pure of heart that were protecting the Light, but they disappeared, and now the worlds picked out seven of us to replace them, and you’re the seventh. I know it looks like there are already seven of us here, but Aqua isn’t one. She’s an honorary Wayfinder anyway. That’s what we call ourselves: the Wayfinders! Anyway, we need you to go to the Heart of the World to get awakened as one of us and then come with us to help save the seven who disappeared. And if we can’t save them, then we have to BE them for a very long time. Does any of that make sense?”  
            Tiana shook her head. “No, not really. It all sounds like a fairy tale to me. But then again…I did live through a fairy tale of my own.” She thought it over, trying to figure out a way to know if these strangers were telling the truth. “You said somethin’ about a…Heart of the World?”

            Aqua took out the Wayfinder charm, looking intently at it. “It’s that way,” she said, pointing.

            “You’re pointin’ in the direction of the bayou,” Tiana informed her. “Now, I just wonder. I happen to know someone who lives in the heart of the bayou who could tell me the truth about all this. What do you say I come with you that far, and we ask her?”

            Aqua nodded. “I think that sounds like a great idea.”

            “I just gotta tell Lottie to tell my husband I’m gonna be home late after my shift,” Tiana informed the others. “The restaurant closes in two hours. We can get this all sorted out. Can y’all wait that long?”

            “I think we can manage,” Tiana replied.

            “You could always enjoy a dance while you wait,” Tiana suggested. “The floor’s gonna be open.”

            For the first time, the Wayfinders noticed that the space between the tables and the stage was a dancefloor where a crowd of people were moving to the beat.

            “GREAT idea!” Ariel yelled. She leapt up from her seat, grasping Moana’s hand and pulling her forward. “Come on! Let’s go dance!”

            “Uh, Ariel?” Moana tried to protest as she was dragged to the floor. “I don’t know if we should…” Anna’s conversation about romance had given Moana second thoughts when it came to Ariel; was it really a good idea to be so close to her? But Ariel looked back at her with such a cheerful smile on her face that Moana could protest no more, and they launched into the same dance they had performed in the streets of Corona.

            Rapunzel was the next on the floor, spinning and leaping all by herself. Elsa and Aqua followed, moving a little more cautiously; Anna and Merida whirled onto the floor together, their dance faster than anyone else’s.

            Two hours passed quickly; the Wayfinders were completely tired out from their dance. All the other patrons were escorted out of the building. As Tiana, now clad in a smart yellow dress and gray-green hat, congratulated the band, especially Louis the alligator, on their performance, Lottie brought a pitcher of water and seven glasses out to the Wayfinders.

            “Don’t worry, Tia,” Lottie told her friend as Tiana approached the group of tired dancers gulping down their water. “I’ll tell Naveen to wait up.”

            “Well?” Tiana said. “Let’s get goin’. I’m interested to find out the truth of y’all’s story.”

            “Speaking of stories,” Rapunzel said as the Wayfinders moved toward the door, “you said you lived through a fairy tale. Can you tell us more about that?”

            “I’m also interested to know how the princess of a nation became the owner of a restaurant,” Elsa added. “Or was it the other way around?”

            “Well,” Tiana said, “it is a bit unbelievable…but if y’all are talking about other worlds, then y’all might as well know the story. But first, I’m gonna ask y’all this: did any of you ever read the story of the Princess and the Frog when you were younger?”

 

* * *

 

            As Tiana regaled her tale of enchantment, love in an unexpected place, and life as an amphibian, the group moved into the woods and water of the bayou. By then, a full moon hung overhead, giving the bayou a haunting air. Tiana took a break in her tale to warn, “Now, there are some who say the bayou is full of shadows, and they ain’t friendly.”

            “Heartless,” Aqua realized. “We’ll be ready.” She summoned her Keyblade.

            “All right,” Tiana said. “If y’all say so. Now, where was I?”

            “At the part about the frog hunters,” Ariel reminded her.

            So the tale went on as the Wayfinders ventured into darkness.

            When Tiana reached a pivotal point in her tale, Elsa interrupted; “Is this Mama Odie the person we’re going to see?”

            “The very same,” Tiana confirmed. “She knows everything about this world and beyond. I’d be surprised if she couldn’t tell me whether or not y’all were tellin’ the truth. Not that y’all don’t seem like honest folk, the more I get to talkin’ with ya. But you do understand, I still wanna hear more about this situation from a credible source.”

            “Ye’re still callin’ us liars, whether ye want to or not,” Merida groaned.

            “Merida,” Aqua scolded.

            “I understand completely,” Elsa told her. “I don’t know if I would have believed them if Anna’s boyfriend’s family hadn’t known the old tales about the Keyblade. Now, you can keep going about Mama Odie – “

            The tale was interrupted by the THUD of an enormous creature, jet-black and almost invisible against the night, landing in the Wayfinders’ way. Its massive head was shaped like that of an alligator, with snapping jaws and two bright yellow eyes. Its shadowy body was lean and thin, built like that of a dog, but with knees that bent backward.

            “A Shattered!” Moana cried.

            “No,” Aqua realized. “It’s just a Heartless. These, I know how to handle. EEEYAAAAAH!” She lunged at the creature, blade spinning.

            Ariel, Rapunzel, Moana, and Anna each chose a leg of the creature, battering at it with fists, frying pan, oar, and sword. Merida loosed arrow after arrow at the Heartless’ face, aiming for the eyes. Elsa conjured a great spike of ice to slam upwards through the creature’s body from below; unlike the Shattered, the Heartless seemed only mildly put off by being impaled. Tiana stood back, watching the others leap into action and wishing she had something to contribute.

            A surge of light spiraled across the bayou, weaving between the trees until it collided with the Heartless’ side. The light surged right through the Heartless, dismantling its core. The monster disappeared into only a few wisps of shadow.

            “What was that?” Aqua asked as she and the other Wayfinders backed off from the scene.

            The light circled back around in front of them, and now all could see that it was made up of hundreds of tiny glowing insects.

            “The fireflies!” Tiana realized. She stepped forward, bowing her head to them. “Thanks for helpin’ us outta that jam!”

            The fireflies circled Tiana affectionately. She knew why they were helping her out. “I miss him too,” she said sympathetically. “Hardly a day goes by when I don’t think about him.”

            The fireflies gathered up and sailed off into the night.

            “Him?” Moana asked. “Who’s he?”

            “Well…that’s closer to the end of my story,” Tiana sighed, “and I’ve got to say, it’s the sad part.”

 

* * *

 

            The night goddess was furious. The Wayfinders should never have gotten this far. They should have met their end in the whirlpool, been petrified in Corona, or fallen prey to the horde of Shattered in DunBroch. It was time for the largest Shattered yet.

            She aimed the trident, forging the creature, drawing upon the heart of Te Fiti set within her crown: the method by which she was creating life itself. It started small, but it grew and grew until it towered over the trees.

            “Now go!” the night goddess commanded. “Swallow those humans whole!”

            The Shattered gave a croak and leapt into the night.

            The night goddess had drawn the attention of a small crowd of Heartless: specifically Shadows, rising up from the dark of the bayou and fixing their golden eyes upon her. She stared them down, knowing she could obliterate them all in a single blow with the help of the trident. But they weren’t out to hurt her. In fact, she got the impression they were ready to help her at her behest.

            “Have you come to serve me?” she asked.

            The Heartless wriggled and squirmed, giving off a vibe of assent.

            “Then this is what I want you to do.” She grinned. “Go out into the city of New Orleans. Douse every light. Chase down every human you find. Do not stop until every single heart within the city has been lost to Darkness!”

            The Shadows heard and obeyed, scampering away to find others of their ilk and launch the attack.

 

* * *

 

            “And that brings us to where we are now,” Tiana concluded. “I’m the princess of Maldonia and the proprietor of Tiana’s Palace.”

            “Ye’re lucky,” Merida admired. “Ye’re a princess, all right, but ye get to chase yer own dream all day instead o’ curtsyin’ and sittin’ up straight and lookin’ pretty.”

            “Moana?” Ariel asked. “Are you okay?”

            Moana had been dragging her feet, looking glumly to the ground. “I’m all right. I just know it was a happy story, but I’m sorry you had to lose Ray.”

            “Like I said,” Tiana reiterated, “I think about him near every day. But he died doin’ what was right. If I ever gotta go, I hope it’ll be as bravely as he did. He was a true friend.”

            All were silent for a moment in his honor.

            “Well, the name holds true,” Merida said at last. “Ye found yer way.”

            “We all did,” Aqua clarified. “That’s what makes us the Wayfinders.”

            “Then maybe I am one of y’all,” Tiana said cheerfully.

            The ground shook.

            “Okay, was THAT an earthquake?” Anna asked.

            “It sounded more like something huge hitting the ground,” Elsa observed.

            “That is NAE what any of us wanted to hear!” Merida snapped.

            The ground shook again with a BOOM. Then again, harder.

            “Somethin’s comin’,” Tiana warned. “Maybe another shadow.”

            Weapons were braced. “GET READY!” Aqua called out.

            The frog-shaped Shattered, as tall as the sea monster’s necks and proportionately wide and long, landed in the path of the Wayfinders, letting out a nearly deafening “CROAK!” Its bright green skin nearly glowed; the Shattered sigil stood out upon its ballooning throat in vermilion.

            “GO!” Aqua yelled. “SAME PATTERN AS THE HEARTLESS!”

            Ariel spun, slamming her fists into the frog’s left front leg. Rapunzel battered the right front leg with her frying pan. Moana took the rear left with her oar, and Anna chipped away at the rear right with her sword. The frog stamped on the ground, splashing in the waters and forcing the four to back away in order to avoid being crushed.

            Merida held her position, firing upon the frog’s face. Elsa conjured up an ice spike big enough to pierce the frog’s stomach, but not big enough to be fatal, given the massive size of the creature. The frog gave another “CROAK!” and shot out its long, sticky tongue, which wrapped around Merida.

            “NO!” Merida screamed, fumbling for the sword at her waist; the frog’s tongue covered it up.

            As the frog withdrew its tongue, Tiana grabbed ahold of Merida’s underarms and dug her heels into the ground, pulling her back. Elsa froze the frog’s tongue in a tall column of ice, preventing it from pulling Merida into its mouth. She then grabbed onto Merida’s feet, and as she and Tiana heaved in unison, Merida was freed from the frog’s tongue at the same time that the tongue broke through the ice, escaping the fate of being sucked down the amphibian’s throat.

            “Get behind it!” Elsa recommended, leading Tiana and Merida around back of the frog; she sent sharp spears of ice at its sides along the way.

            “Makin’ me fight a frog!” Tiana huffed. “It just ain’t right!”

            Aqua was already behind the frog, first firing off a round of Shotlock magic at it. She then sent her blade spinning through the air to collide with its body; the Keyblade seemed almost to bounce off it before returning to Aqua’s hand. “This isn’t good!” she said through gritted teeth.

            The frog shook itself before leaping high, turning a 360 in the air and landing hard on the ground. The impact knocked Anna, Rapunzel, Moana, and Ariel over. The frog now faced Aqua, Elsa, Merida, and Tiana. It “RIBBIT”ed once more before sending out its tongue again.

            Tiana shoved Merida out of the way, putting herself right in the tongue’s path. Before Elsa or Aqua could react, Tiana was wrapped up in the tongue, being rapidly drawn toward the frog’s mouth.

            “NO!” Aqua screamed.

            A bright bolt of pure Light, this one not made up of fireflies, zapped through the air, striking the gargantuan frog in the throat. It choked, spitting; Tiana was thrown out of its mouth. More Light blasted at the frog, striking it again and again until it transformed into stone, cracking apart into shards that splashed into the bayou waters.

            “NOW I CAN’T LEAVE Y’ALL ALONE FOR A SECOND, CAN I?” a high-pitched, elderly-sounding voice boomed out.

            “Mama Odie!” Tiana cried, scrambling to her feet.

            A short, rotund woman clad in white, eyes shrouded by dark glasses, carrying a club that was lit on fire like a torch, sauntered in among the Wayfinders. “Well, come on, children!” she beckoned. “Y’all gonna catch your death out here! We can talk about what you’re lookin’ for inside!”

            “Inside where?” Anna asked.

            “In there, of course!” Mama Odie gestured with the club, and barely visible up at the top of the thickest tree was a boat nestled among the branches.

            Once Mama Odie and all the Wayfinders were inside the boat, the former doused her club of flames; the boat was lit up by a multitude of lamps that sparkled comfortingly. “So you’re them girls who’ve been goin’ all over the worlds!” Odie remarked.

            “All over the worlds!” Tiana gasped. “So that means…”

            “What, you thought they was lyin’?” Odie retorted. “These girls can’t lie! Well, maybe that li’l redhead can tell a mighty big fib about what was in that cake she gave her mama, but she learned her lesson!”

            “How d’ye know about that?” Merida asked in awe.

            “Didn’t Tiana tell you?” Odie snapped. “I know just ‘bout everything! Like I know you came here to find out if these girls were tellin’ the truth! Lemme tell ya, Tiana, these girls came from waaaaaaaaaay out there in the stars! And they in some mighty big trouble!”

            “They told me I was part of a replacement set of seven women with pure heart,” Tiana said.

            “That ya are!” Odie confirmed.

            “But I ain’t pure of heart,” Tiana told her.

            “Well, I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” Odie replied. “Sure, you got a little bad in that heart of yours, just ‘cause there could only be the seven who didn’t. But what bad you done your whole life? A lot less than some of these girls can say! Y’all got somethin’ in common, though!” She leaned in close. “Ya found your way. Whatever bad was in y’all’s hearts, ya got through it! Stick with these girls, Tiana! They gonna help you through thick an’ thin! And if ya don’t, well, the worlds are gonna be in a miiiiiighty big fix without ya.”

            “Thank you,” Tiana said respectfully.

            “Now,” Odie went on, “to get to the important part! What y’all need! Hmmm.” She appeared to be surveying the eight women, though all could tell she was quite blind and couldn’t be looking at them directly. She stood in that position for far longer than anyone anticipated.

            “Mama…Odie?” Rapunzel asked, stepping closer to the old woman.

            Odie snored.

            “She’s ASLEEP?” Moana cried in exasperation.

            That jolted Odie awake. “Oh, what, huh? Oh, right! What y’all need! Well, it’s easy to see what y’all want.” She fished in her pocket. “At least one of you wants candy!” She extended her palm, holding out a hard candy covered in a dusty wrapper; it seemed to have been in that pocket for ages.

            “Anna.” Elsa read her sister’s mind. “Don’t eat that – “

            “How’d you KNOW?” Anna swiped the candy, unwrapping it and popping it into her mouth. “Mmmm, that’s good!”

            “See?” Odie told her. “Can’t judge a candy by its wrapper, can ya? As for Tiana, now, that’s another easy one. You weren’t doin’ so good against that big ol’ frog out there. You need somethin’ to protect ya.” She pressed her club against Tiana’s stomach. “Here! Take it!”

            “But I can’t!” Tiana protested. “It’s yours! What’ll you do without it?”

            “I got more!” Odie insisted.

            “But it’s Voodoo,” Tiana argued. “I don’t know the first thing about Voodoo.”

            “You’re closer to Voodoo than ya know,” Odie told her. “It’s gonna be okay. This ain’t even the strongest kind I got. Just point it, and the Light will follow!”

            Tiana took hold of the club in her hands. “Thank you, Mama Odie,” she said graciously. “I’ll make the best of it.”

            “Hmmmmm.” Odie thought over the rest of the group. “Seems to me y’all had things ya needed once. An’ you’re gonna have things y’all need again later. But I don’t think any of you need me to point ‘em out! That’s what y’all’ve been Wayfindin’ for! Ya got all the tools ya need to figure out what y’all need and how to get it! And ain’t a lotta people that can say that!”

            The Wayfinders all looked among each other, proud of themselves, proud of the company they kept.

            “That means y’all only need one last thing!” Odie stepped back, gesturing to the floor with both hands. “And I believe it’s right here.”

            The Keyhole glittered against the wooden floor.

            “Go on!” Odie encouraged. “Step inside!”

            Tiana placed both feet within the edges of the Keyhole.

            “Now close your eyes!” Odie commanded.

            Tiana did as she was bidden. The calm enveloped her, filling her with a sense of fulfillment. Then the colors poured in, every shade, every hue, blending together like the ingredients of a complex dish. She knew that every piece came from a different world, and all belonged together.

            The others all watched in awe as Tiana glowed even brighter than the lights illuminating Odie’s boat.

            The glow faded; Tiana stepped outside of the Keyhole. “You’re all set!” Mama Odie declared. “Now go on out there and save those worlds!”

            Aqua bowed. “Thank you, Mama Odie.”

            “Aw, you’re welcome!” Odie replied. “Now get! The balance ain’t gonna hold itself together!”

 

* * *

 

            “We just gotta stop by my place real quick to tell Naveen where I’m goin’,” Tiana explained as the Wayfinders, now complete, stepped back into the city streets. “I do hope he’s all right with this. I shouldn’t be too long.”

            When the group entered the road that led to Tiana’s home, they were struck speechless by the sight that awaited them.

            Broken street lamps. Broken windows. Debris lining the streets. Something had forcefully torn its way down the road, intending to cause as much destruction as possible.

            “No,” Tiana whispered. “How could this happen?”          

            The others tried to muster up something to say, but none could.

            The silence was broken by a male voice calling out: “Tiana! TIANAAAAA!” The voice’s owner, a man of deep-brown skin and dark hair, dressed in a sharp suit, barreled down the street, keeping Tiana in his sights.

            “NAVEEN!” Tiana rushed toward the man, and the two met in a tight embrace.

            “Tiana,” Naveen said shakingly as he pressed his cheek up against the side of her face and his chin into her shoulder, “the shadows came into the city and destroyed everything. I went back to the Palace to look for you. I was afraid you…but you’re okay.” He tightened his grip protectively.

            “Naveen,” Tiana replied softly. “I’m so glad you’re safe. How far did the shadows get?”

            “Down this street and a good way into town,” Naveen answered. “They might have done a lot worse than they did, but we had a little help from an unexpected place.” He let go of Tiana; they stepped back to face each other. “The fireflies came into the middle of town and shone so brightly, they tore all the shadows apart. It is what Ray would have wanted, no?”

            “It is,” Tiana agreed. “Have you seen Lottie?”

            “She has been hiding in our basement,” Naveen told her. “She also came looking for you, and I wanted to keep her safe.” He turned to yell at one of the buildings whose façade was scratched and beaten; “LOTTIE!”

            There was a moment’s pause before the door creaked open and Lottie peered out. “Is it safe?”

            “Yes!” Naveen told her. “And Tiana is all right!”

            “TIA!” Lottie ran out into the street. “Oh, Tia, Tia, Naveen and I were so scared!”

            “It’s all right,” Tiana tried to reassure. “It’s over now.”

            Naveen took notice of the other Wayfinders for the first time. “Tiana, are these the people you stayed after work with?”

            “Yeah,” Tiana answered. “They’re new friends. And, well, we’ve gotta break some news to y’all. It hardly seems right to go after this happened…” She turned to look at the other Wayfinders. “But I’m guessin’ this is the kind of thing we’re comin’ together to stop.”

            Aqua gave a brief nod.

            “I’ve gotta go on a journey away from here,” Tiana explained. “My friends are on a quest, and they need me. We spoke to Mama Odie about it, and she said that was what was right. If everything goes right, we should be able to protect this city better from the shadows. And I ain’t gonna stop workin’ hard until we get to that point.”

            “You never do,” Naveen told her.

            “But it’s a long way away,” Tiana went on. “I don’t know if I can really explain where we’re goin’. All I know is it won’t be forever. I’ll be back. I promise.”

            “Tia,” Lottie said with a tremor in her voice, “you know I’m gonna be worried about you every day so long as you’re gone – “

            “I’m not,” Naveen broke in. “If I know one thing, Tiana, it’s that you can handle yourself through the toughest times. You go on. We’ll wait.”

            “And we’ll take good care of the restaurant,” Lottie promised.

            “With me as the temporary head chef,” Naveen bragged, “nothing can go wrong!”

            “Now, uh, no offense, Naveen,” Lottie replied, “but with you as the head chef, EVERYTHIN’S gonna go wrong. Let’s find somebody from within the staff, shall we?” She looked Tiana in the eye. “Wherever you’re goin’, good luck.”

            “And you have the same wish from me,” Naveen added.

            “Y’all stay safe,” Tiana bade them.

            She turned to walk away with the other Wayfinders. As the group headed out, Naveen distinctly heard Anna saying, “THAT’S your husband? LUCKY!” And he smiled.

            “So,” Tiana asked, “where to?”

            “Well,” Aqua answered, “now, we have a decision to make.”


	8. Chapter 8

Aboard the Gummi ship, Aqua set the vehicle to float while she gathered in a circle with Moana, Anna, Elsa, Ariel, Rapunzel, Merida, and Tiana.

            “Now that I’ve found you,” Aqua told the other Wayfinders, “I have to go try and save the original seven Princesses of Heart. There’s no question there. But now that you’re with me, you have to choose your path. It would be safer for all of you if I brought you to Radiant Garden to begin work learning how to pick up where the Princesses left off, and I went without you to save the Princesses. But pretty much every one of you has insisted that you want to be part of saving the Princesses. The problem is, if what happened to them ends up happening to you, there may not be another seven. That balance might be lost forever.”

            “Do ye know that for sure?” Merida asked.

            “No,” Aqua stated. “I don’t. There might just be another seven after you.”

            “Seems to me we gotta do what’s right,” Tiana emphasized. “What’s the point of bein’ a force for good in the worlds if we don’t act on it?”

            “I said I would save the others,” Moana added, “and I meant it.”

            “We can’t just leave them!” Ariel said with conviction. “Besides, with all of our power combined together, we’ll be unstoppable!”

            “I’m not going to turn my back on them when I know they need me,” Rapunzel insisted. “And if we find out who’s holding them captive, we can also find out who has the trident and the heart of Te Fiti. We can stop the storms and the nightfalls, and we can turn everyone in Corona back to normal!”

            “We’ve come this far,” Anna piped up.

            “If they need us,” Elsa added, “we can’t turn back.”

            “Besides, ye promised me a dangerous adventure,” Merida said with a grin. “I’m no’ gonna just play it safe. I’m comin’ to save yer friends.”

            Aqua was overtaken by a sudden fear that they would fail, and consequently a desire to put her foot down and tell them all that they would be going to Radiant Garden to do less risky work and they would have to deal with that. However, she had seen each of these women prove her strength and desire to do what was right on her own world. They were capable of making their own decisions, and she knew she had no right to take that away from them.

            “Then we’re going to a dangerous place,” Aqua warned. “A whole world that appeared from nowhere around the time these disasters started to happen. A world I think our enemy created.”

            “I hope we can finally face them,” Moana said coldly. “They need to give back what they stole.”

            “We’re not giving up until it’s all been fixed,” Rapunzel insisted. “Take us there, Aqua!”

            “All right,” Aqua resolved. “If that’s where you want to go, then we’ll go.”

 

* * *

 

            The new world was bleak. Aqua was reminded of the Keyblade Graveyard, but instead of brown earth, she was surrounded by gray stone, and instead of feeble daylight, the landscape was ruled over by a starless night, with only an ever-watching full moon looking down upon the Wayfinders as they stepped out onto the hard rock. Mountains jutted toward the sky on the horizon; closer to the group, a forest of stalagmites protruded from the ground, looking as sharp as Elsa’s weaponized ice or the black rocks that plagued Rapunzel.

            “Well, this is certainly cheery,” Merida said sarcastically.

            “Does the Wayfinder say anything about which way we’re going?” Moana asked Aqua.

            Aqua held out the charm experimentally. “It’s quiet,” she informed the others. “We’ll have to find the Princesses on our own.”

            “Well, if we start walkin’, eventually, we gotta get somewhere,” Tiana suggested.

            They set out across the cold stone, weaving through the stalagmites.

            After some time, they came to the edge of a body of water that stretched as far as the eye could see in all directions. “Should we turn back?” Elsa wondered out loud.

            “Not if we can find a boat,” Moana answered. “Elsa, could you make one? Something big enough to hold all of us?”

            “I can try,” Elsa said with a nod. She motioned with her hands, crafting a boat whose body and mast were made of clear, glittering ice. A sail of white-blue fabric festooned with the emblem of a snowflake unfurled from the mast; ropes connected it to the boat’s skeleton.

            “I can sail this,” Moana said confidently. “Everyone on board!”

            She, Aqua, Tiana, Rapunzel, Elsa, Anna, Ariel, and Merida all boarded the transparent boat, shoving it out to sea.

            “Ocean?” Moana asked. “Are you okay?”

            There was a slight rocking of the waves beneath the boat.

            “I think she’s…sick,” Moana translated. “She isn’t supposed to be here. This whole world isn’t supposed to be here. Our enemy used the heart of Te Fiti to create this place, and that’s something only Te Fiti should have been able to do.”

            “Whoever this is just doesn’t seem to care,” Rapunzel observed. “Not about anything or anyone. Just destruction.”

            “And creation,” Tiana pointed out. “But only the kind of creation that benefits them.”

            After some time, Moana admitted, “It’s hard to navigate without stars. I’m a little afraid we’re going in circles.”

            “’Tis better than not going at all,” Merida reassured her.

            Anna fished around in her pockets. “I think I still have some candy left over from Corona…aha!” She took a handful of wrapped chocolates out and offered them. “Candy, anyone?”

            Rapunzel smiled. “You know, this might be the first time I’ve been happy about something Uncle Monty did.” She unwrapped a chocolate and placed it in her mouth eagerly.

            At last, the opposite shore came into view. “We’re almost there!” Moana announced. “Unless it’s back where we started.”

            “I think those rocks look different from where we set out,” Ariel told her, “but it’s hard to tell. Everything on this world is so…gray and cold.”

            The boat ran ashore, and the Wayfinders departed it. A short walk brought them to the next landmark, proving they had indeed made progress. A forest of trees sculpted entirely of the same gray stone as the rest of the land sprouted up before them; the canopy of false leaves was thick as a roof, preventing the moonlight from getting through.

            “I’ve got this.” Tiana held up the club Mama Odie had presented to her, and it caught flame. “This should give us a little more light to see by.”

            The torch illuminated a fairly large area around the Wayfinders, providing enough light by which to navigate the false forest. “This person really likes stone,” Anna observed. “Can they make anything that ISN’T rocks?”

            “This place is pretty scary,” Rapunzel added. “I keep thinking a Shattered is going to jump out at us any minute.”

            “We’ll just have to scare them off by having a good time!” Ariel suggested.

            “I’m not sure that’s how the Shattered work,” Tiana replied.

            “But it’ll cheer the rest of us up to sing together!” Ariel emphasized. “Besides, I haven’t heard Rapunzel, Merida, or Tiana sing yet! Rapunzel, you should go first, since you’re the most scared.”

            “Well…okay,” Rapunzel agreed. “All those days watching from the windows. All those years, outside looking in. All that time, never even knowing just how blind I’ve been…”

            But it was Tiana’s song that everyone picked up the most quickly. Even Aqua threw in her off-key voice to form a chorus, and by the time the Wayfinders reached the other end of the forest, all eight were belting, “YOU GOTTA DIG A LITTLE DEEPER TO FIND OUT WHO YOU ARE! YOU GOTTA DIG A LITTLE DEEPER! IT REALLY AIN’T THAT FAR!”

            The song carried them all the way across the barren plains to a great chasm, forty feet wide, one whose bottom seemed impossibly deep. To fall from the edge would be to meet death.

            “You’re up, Elsa!” Anna encouraged.

            Elsa confidently crafted an ornate bridge that spanned the length of the chasm, and the Wayfinders crossed it together.

            Then they came to the edge of a shorter cliff; jumping down would still be death or at least the cause of very painful broken bones, but the bottom was at least clearly visible. Another stone tree sprouted up next to them.

            “I’ve got this one,” Rapunzel said decisively. She unbound her hair from its braid, throwing it up over a branch of the tree and letting it flow down the length of the cliff, where it met the ground. “Just climb down. Don’t worry about me; I’ll be fine. Just…try to go one at a time?”

            One by one, Aqua, Tiana, Merida, Anna, Elsa, Moana, and Ariel clambered down the length of Rapunzel’s hair. Finally, Rapunzel re-fastened the end of her hair to the tree branch and swung down, loosening the hair and bringing it down to her with a sharp tug. The others helped her bind the hair back up into its thick braid.

            The journey continued through the bottom of a ravine that was shouldered by great cliffs, twisting in such a way that one could never quite see what was beyond the rocks ahead. When at last the path through the ravine ended, it let out upon a great stone plain, mostly barren but for the odd formation of rock here and there – some pillars, a patch of stalagmites.

            Yet the most striking feature was what appeared to be a semicircle of statues placed out among the blankness of the field. Upon closer inspection, Aqua recognized the likenesses of Kairi, Jasmine, Cinderella, Aurora, Belle, Snow White, and Alice.

            “The other princesses,” she gasped. “It’s them! They’ve been turned to stone!”

            “By who?” Moana wondered out loud.

            The voice came from above: “Who indeed?”

            The one who thought of herself as the night goddess swooped down from the sky on batlike wings. She landed in the midst of the semicircle of stone princesses, and the Wayfinders were taken aback. Whatever they had expected to see, it was not this. The night goddess’ skin was bright blue; her wings hooked around front of her chest like a cape. Her hands and feet were bare, the fingers and toes sharpened claws. She was dressed in meager, ragged clothing of gray. Fangs protruded over her lower lip, and her head was adorned with a tuft of deep red hair, upon which sat a golden crown inset with a green stone. In her right hand, she clutched the trident.

            Moana’s attention was placed upon the stone above all else. “That’s the heart of Te Fiti!” She stormed toward the night goddess. “GIVE IT BACK!”

            The night goddess pointed the trident directly at Moana. “Come no closer,” she warned.

            Ariel stepped protectively in front of Moana, well aware of the harm the trident could inflict in the wrong hands.

            Aqua moved out front of both of them. “Who are you?” she demanded. “Why are you doing all of this?”

            “I have become a goddess,” the woman answered. “I bear both the power of Te Fiti and King Triton. Nothing can stop me. And I aim to bring Darkness upon all worlds so that there is day no more; only night. There will be no place for humans and creatures of the daylight anymore: only those who thrive in the night. I was born with no name, but I have become the night goddess. However…there is a name humans have seen fit to give me. I suppose it will be easiest for you to call me the same name.” Her lips curled upward, baring her fangs more prominently. “Demona.”

            “Demona,” Aqua repeated. “What are you trying to accomplish? Why eternal night?”

            “As if you don’t know!” Demona spat. “You are all humans! You have taken advantage of and crushed those who are not like you at every turn, even though you have so much less power! My people, the Gargoyles, are one such race you have kept down through centuries. We have always thrived at night, when humans have cowered in fear of the dark. Once my work has been completed, Gargoyles and other creatures of the night will be able to rise again, and humans will fall to their death at the work of the storms and the creatures I have created! As they should have fallen long ago.”

            “You can’t just destroy all the humans!” Anna argued. “It’s not right!”

            “Was it RIGHT for them to treat us as monsters and slaughter our children in their nests?” Demona spat. “Was it RIGHT for them to force our civilization into hiding while they built their empires in the open?”

            These words surprised the Wayfinders. “All this time,” Rapunzel said softly, “we thought you didn’t care about anything but yourself. We never knew there were creatures who you were trying to protect. If we’d have known about the Gargoyles, maybe we could have helped – “

            “You?” Demona scoffed. “Help us? It’s the same song and dance humans have given us for centuries. And it is always a lie. They never understand. You cannot possibly understand the pain I have felt at humans’ hands, being forced into a role of submission because of what I was! Being an outcast, alone, for so long!”

            “Now, wait a minute!” Anna snapped. “You think I don’t get what it’s like to be alone for years and years?”

            “Or to be thought of as a monster?” Elsa added.

            “To be held back from your dream because of what you look like!” Tiana said forcefully.

            “To be forced into a fate ye don’t want because of how ye were born!” Merida insisted.

            “You have always had the benefit of being human,” Demona growled. “No problem you have had could ever erase that.”

            “I wasn’t always a human,” Ariel spoke up. “Daddy always told me humans were dangerous, and I never believed him. But once I became a human, I learned a lot about them, and in a lot of ways, he was right. There are so many humans who want to hurt the ocean just so they can get what they want, and they don’t listen! But there are some who will. If you just talk to – “

            “I am THROUGH trying to make humans understand what they have done to us!” Demona interrupted. “They have NEVER listened!”

            “Maybe they haven’t,” Moana said angrily. “And maybe you’re right. Maybe we never can make up for what we did to your people. But did that give you the right to steal from the mother island? What about King Triton? THEY weren’t humans! And Te Fiti cares about all creatures, not just humans! No matter what humans did to you, you’re hurting others who didn’t do anything to you on your way to get back at them! And what about the ocean? You know the ocean would have been on your side if you hadn’t forced her into whirlpools and brought her to your world!”

            “And if this is all about making a better life for Gargoyles,” Aqua added coldly, “where are the rest of them? Why are you the only Gargoyle here?”

            “The others are weak,” Demona seethed. “They believe humans can be reasoned with. One day, they will learn just how wrong they are. When my work is finished, then they will thank me.”

            “I don’t think they will,” Aqua told Demona. “I think they’ll see YOU as the monster because of all the destruction you’ve caused.”

            “The only reason I’ve entertained you this long is because I wanted you to fall knowing why you deserved to,” Demona growled, her grip tightening on the trident. “You may have come this far, but I won’t let you continue any longer!” A beam of magic surged through the trident.

            “NO!” Aqua charged into its path, deflecting the magic with a shield.

            “All right, everyone!” Rapunzel yelled. “I think we all know what to do!”

            Demona unfurled her wings, taking off high into the air. She swung the trident in a semicircle, creating a host of Shattered in the form of white wolves. The wolves charged, jaws snapping.

            Tiana swung the club, willing Light to flow through herself into it. In one swoop, she brought down every single wolf.

            Aqua lined up for a Shotlock; Merida positioned herself next to Aqua, nocking an arrow. Both fired at Demona, who expertly flew around the magic and arrows that were meant for her.

            Merida reached back for an arrow only to find that she had reached the last one in her quiver. Instinct told her not to waste her last shot. Instead, she drew the broadsword Fergus had presented her with.

            Demona aimed the trident at Aqua, hoping to bring down the Keyblade master. Magic surged toward Aqua faster than Aqua could think to react; however, Rapunzel had her covered. The blonde stepped in between, catching the beam on the inside flat of the frying pan, which sent it bouncing right back at Demona. Demona swerved, evading the shot.

            A strong, cold wind began to blow; snow was carried upon the rush of air. Demona found it harder to keep aloft with the winds beating down upon her; from below, Elsa bit her lip in concentration. Demona gave up the battle against the winds and landed, feet planting into a soft blanket of snow; she knew she could carry the battle just as well on the ground as in the air.

            The shaft of the trident met Anna’s quickly flying blade, crashing against it again and again. Demona sensed a presence from behind and spun the trident, parrying a blow from Merida’s broadsword. She twisted the weapon quickly enough to avoid the onslaught from both princesses, using her free hand to claw outward at Anna’s face. Anna backed off in fear; Demona charged forward, away from Merida. She turned the trident back around, putting Merida in her sights.

            But before she could fire, she endured a strong blow to the back of the head; Rapunzel had swatted her with the frying pan. Blinking away disorientation, Demona swung the trident to collide with Rapunzel’s side and knock her over. Moana took advantage of the opening to run in with her oar; the trident knocked the wood away time after time. Anna and Merida made to run back at Demona, but walls of stalagmites rose before them, curtaining them off.

            Aqua charged with spinning blade; Demona kicked Moana away, sending her high up on a pillar of stone. Blast after blast of magic emerged from the trident; Aqua covered herself with protective magic in turn, and the malevolent energy was deflected. Her blade met the shaft of the trident, and she and Demona became locked in a frenetic duel.

            Demona became aware of frost forming on her skin; Elsa was trying to freeze her. She knew she needed to escape from Aqua, and fast. Slamming the trident’s base on the ground, she created a great pit below Aqua, trapping the Keyblade master ten feet down. She then rushed Elsa, trident firing.

            The blasts met great walls of ice, turning them into walls of granite. Elsa darted among these partitions, looking to get a good view of Demona so she could continue the process of encasing her in ice. But whenever Elsa could see Demona, that meant Demona was open to attack Elsa. A spear of ice went flying through the air at the same time as a beam of magic; the spear was petrified in midair, falling to the ground and shattering, thereby cancelling both attacks.

            Light sizzled against the backs of Demona’s wings: Tiana’s work. Now that Elsa was no longer focusing on the winds, it was easier to fly; Demona took to the skies once again, using the trident to beat back both Tiana’s Light and Elsa’s ice.

            “Elsa!” Ariel cried. “Give me a ramp!”

            Elsa understood what Ariel meant. She created a ramp of ice that led directly upward, ready to intercept Demona’s path.

            Ariel jumped onto the ramp, charging up the slope and leaping from the summit to tackle Demona from behind. She seized the weapon in Demona’s hands by the shaft, growling, “Let…go…of Daddy’s…TRIDENT!”

            Rapunzel tore her hair free from its braid, throwing it down for Aqua to grab and climb out of the pit. Merida and Anna found their way out from behind the walls of stone. Moana was still trapped at the top of her pillar, which Demona and Ariel’s struggle was bringing them over.

            Merida knew now was the time for her last shot. She nocked the arrow, breathing in deeply as she drew back and aimed. It had to count. The arrow flew.

            The crown was struck; it fell from Demona’s head. Demona cried out; Moana reached up. The circlet was deftly caught in Moana’s hand. “YES!” Moana cried.

            A slide of ice appeared from the top of Moana’s pillar to the stone below; Moana took the opportunity to careen down. She gave a thankful wave to Elsa.

            Demona finally threw Ariel off her back; Aqua screamed “WIND!” as she practically threw her Keyblade in the direction of Ariel’s path. Ariel was caught by a cyclone of wind that gently levitated her before gradually sinking down lower to the ground.

            “Tiana!” Elsa called out. “Together!”

            “All right!” Tiana yelled.

            “You…” Demona seethed, “will…PAY!” She twirled the trident at both Tiana and Elsa.

            Rapunzel caught the blast on the frying pan once more. Tiana sent a surge of Light at Demona at the same time that Elsa let loose a hailstorm borne on the wind. Demona was able to avoid the ricocheting beam she had sent, but not all three attacks at once. She was struck by searing Light and pellets of ice. She dipped down to the ground, her flight path uneven.

            Ariel, Moana, Merida, and Anna all grabbed hold of the trident’s shaft as soon as it was low enough, tugging hard to force it out of Demona’s hand. Demona seized the trident with both hands, pulling back, beating her wings furiously. Aqua aimed the Keyblade, crying, “THUNDER!” Bolts of lightning struck Demona from all sides, and as she cried out in pain, she finally let go. Ariel stumbled backward; Merida, Moana, and Anna all left the trident into her hands.

            Aqua edged in front of Demona, striking her again and again with the Keyblade. Demona was resilient; she was knocked about, but not seriously harmed. She was, however, kept completely at bay during Aqua’s dance. Aqua cast spell after spell, surrounding Demona in pure magic.

            The others all charged toward their duel, but Moana held up her hands to halt them. “STOP!” she cried. “We have to use our light! Just like back in Corona!”

            “Use our light?” Merida was confused.

            “If we all reach deep down,” Moana said, “we’ll find the light in all of us! We have to join it together! And if we all use it at once, we can overpower Demona!” She ran to seize Ariel’s left hand in her right. “Everyone, join hands!”

            Ariel grabbed Elsa’s hand, Elsa grabbed Anna’s, Anna grabbed Rapunzel’s, Rapunzel grabbed Tiana’s, and Tiana grabbed Merida’s. They all felt the light within themselves, at the core of their hearts, and brought it out into a glow that surrounded all seven.

            Aqua began to twirl, round and round, faster and faster, catching Demona up on her whirling blade and in a rush of magic. She lifted a leg, entering the Biellmann spin. When her spin was complete, Demona was thrown back, landing on the ground before the petrified Princesses of Heart.

            “This isn’t over,” Demona growled as she staggered to stand. “You have taken from me for too long! I won’t stand for being abused by humans anymore!”

            Aqua pointed her Keyblade at Demona. “I know you’re hurt,” she said, “but we can’t let you abuse our worlds.”

            “What if we channeled it through Aqua?” Rapunzel wondered out loud.

            “Let’s try!” Ariel urged.

            The ends of the chain moved forward; Moana set her left hand on Aqua’s left shoulder and Merida reached up to set her right hand on Aqua’s right shoulder. The seven fed their light into Aqua, who glowed brightest of all.

            “No,” Demona growled when she realized what was happening. “NO!”

            With a wordless yell, Aqua funneled all the light that had entered her into the Keyblade, all eight Wayfinders pouring the sum of their energy into it. The light shot forth as a wide beam that enveloped Demona; the Gargoyle who had once called herself night goddess screamed. The light grew brighter and brighter, obscuring the vision of the Wayfinders, pouring out over the field of stone.

            When at last, it subsided, Aqua, Moana, Ariel, Elsa, Anna, Rapunzel, Tiana, and Merida blinked their vision back into view to behold what lay before them.

            Demona had been completely petrified, looking the image of a perfectly carved statue. Behind her, the seven stone Princesses had been restored to flesh; Kairi, Jasmine, Alice, Aurora, Cinderella, Belle, and Snow White felt their bodies to prove that they were no longer stone.

            “What happened?” Alice wondered out loud.

            Kairi looked up to the Wayfinders with joy. “It was them!” she cried. “They did it! They saved us!”

            The Princesses of Heart rushed to the Wayfinders joyfully. “AQUA!” Kairi cried. “YOU DID IT!”

            Aqua brought Kairi into a hug. “You’re safe,” she said thankfully.

            “So yer the Princesses of Heart!” Merida remarked. “Glad yer back. Wasn’t lookin’ forward to doin’ yer jobs…though I would’ve if I had to.”

            “And who are all of you?” Cinderella asked.

            “We’re the Wayfinders!” Rapunzel introduced. “Substitute Princesses of Heart, in a pinch.”

            “I think we have a lot to discuss,” Aqua announced, “but we should probably do it somewhere off this world. Without Demona holding it together, it might fade away.”

            “If it doesn’t, we need to dismantle it so long as we have this.” Moana held up the crown. “Creating this world was something only Te Fiti should have been able to do, but she wasn’t able to do it. We need to leave this space empty for her to begin again if she ever wants.”

            “But…” Jasmine looked to the petrified Demona. “What do we do about her?”

            “We take her with us,” Aqua insisted.

            “Even after all she’s done?” Merida asked.

            Aqua nodded. “I may not know what happened to her, but I think I understand why she did a lot of what she did. And leaving her here…just wouldn’t be right.” She nodded. “We need to get going.”

 

* * *

 

            On the flight to Yen Sid’s tower, the fourteen chosen ones got to know each other. Cinderella and Tiana traded recipes. Belle gave Rapunzel book recommendations. Merida and Alice discussed what things didn’t seem to make sense about life and shouldn’t be taken seriously. Kairi and Moana discussed island life while Jasmine talked to Elsa about magic. Ariel compared her six sisters to Aurora’s three eccentric “aunts,” and Snow White and Anna bonded over the joy found with discovering true love. When they ascended the stairways to Yen Sid’s sanctum, carrying Demona with them, all fifteen, even Aqua, belted a rousing chorus: “Fairy tales and miracles are what we’re singing of! Our dear Princesses of Heart; the Wayfinders sent from above! A happy end forever after…full of joy and love!”

            Yen Sid could hear the song from behind the door to his chamber. When the fifteen entered, he remarked, “I see you have been more than successful on your venture.”

            Aqua nodded. “We have.”

            “Tell me the tale,” Yen Sid urged.

            And so they did, the eight Wayfinders taking turns with their parts of the story. When at last, they reached the end, Yen Sid nodded toward Demona, who had been propped up in the corner. “And I suppose this is the offender.”

            “She is,” Aqua confirmed.

            “What do you wish to become of her?” Yen Sid inquired.

            “We talked it over on the ride here,” Aqua stated. “She needs to be locked up somewhere for now until we figure out what to really do with her.”

            “She’s evil, all right,” Anna added, “but she also just seemed…”

            “Alone,” Rapunzel supplied. “I think that’s why the symbol on all of her creatures was a broken heart.”

            “Humans did a lot of bad things to her,” Ariel added. “We don’t know her whole story, but I know she was hurt.”

            “She said for centuries,” Merida recalled. “Can ye imagine bein’ in pain for centuries?”

            “And nobody would listen to her,” Tiana chimed in. “She’d tried to make peace with humans before, but whatever happened, her trust was broken.”

            “I’ve never even seen a Gargoyle before,” Elsa brought up. “I wonder if the others need our help as much as she thought they needed hers.”

            “We couldn’t let her keep destroying our worlds,” Moana said, “but we think we get WHY she was destroying our worlds.”

            “We just hope there’s a way she can be happy someday,” Kairi broke in. “We don’t want her to have to feel that pain anymore.”

            “But it’s too dangerous to let her be free right now,” Aqua asserted.

            “I see,” Yen Sid responded. “I shall keep her within my tower, and we shall all keep her in mind. Perhaps one day, we shall find the solution we seek.”

            “Right now, we need to focus on cleaning up the mess she made,” Elsa said somberly.

            “The stars informed me you would be arriving soon,” Yen Sid said, “as well as several other points of interest. The world Demona forged is collapsing, and within a week, shall be no more. The storms have lifted over Arendelle, DunBroch, Atlantica, and the other worlds they besieged. Night has turned back to day on the worlds where it should, and filled with stars on the worlds where it must still be night. The people of Corona may now walk freely again in the flesh. And there are no more creatures marked with the broken heart. It seems petrifying Demona negated much of what she cast.”

            “My family’s okay!” Rapunzel cried. “Eugene’s okay! And Cassandra!”

            “There yet remains the matter of the trident and the heart of Te Fiti,” Yen Sid went on. “If I may see the crown?”  
            Moana tentatively handed it to Yen Sid. With a glow of magic, he separated the green stone from the cold metal; the heart floated through the air toward Moana, who caught it in her hands and held it protectively. “You know what must be done with it,” Yen Sid told her.

            Moana nodded. “I will return it as soon as I can.”

            “Which will be very soon indeed,” Yen Sid said. “Now that the Princesses of Heart have been freed, those of you calling yourselves the Wayfinders may return home. But be vigilant, for you are still awakened. There may come a day when the worlds need the Wayfinders again, and you must be ready.”

            “We will be,” Tiana promised, and the others nodded.

            Yen Sid smiled. “You may return whenever you see fit.”

            “Everyone back home is probably worried about us,” Kairi pointed out.

            The Princesses of Heart filed out first, followed by the Wayfinders. At the summit of the stairs, Ariel and Moana lingered a little longer.

            “This was such a wonderful adventure!” Ariel gushed. “I’m so glad I got to share it with everyone. Especially you.”

            “Me?” Moana reiterated, flushing.

            “You’re just so excited about seeing new worlds and having new experiences!” Ariel told her. “And I love the way you sing.”

            “Thanks,” Moana replied softly. “I love the way you sing too. And the way you get so happy over the little things, and the way you see treasure in things people call trash, and…” She had to stop herself. It was futile. Ariel was married. Moana didn’t know when, exactly, she had fallen for Ariel. But she knew it was never to be. All Ariel could be to her was a friend. And yet, she would rather have Ariel’s friendship than not know her at all. The other feelings could fade away, but their bond would last. “You’re just a great friend, Ariel. I’m gonna miss you.”

            “I’ll miss you, too,” Ariel said. “Which means I’m just going to have to come visit you in Motonui! You can show me around!”

            “Only if you show me around your kingdom,” Moana replied.

            The fifteen gathered at the bottom of the stairs, and it turned out they were discussing relatively the same topic; “Do you think we’ll ever see each other again?” Rapunzel asked.

            “I know we will,” Aqua said confidently. “We’re all connected now, and it would take a lot to break that connection.” Her face turned somber. “Not to mention that every time a Darkness is vanquished, a new one takes its place. The worlds will need us again. Princesses of Heart AND Wayfinders.”

            “That’s rather frightening,” Snow White admitted.

            “Let’s not think about the danger now,” Kairi suggested. “It won’t do us any good.”

            “But the danger’s the most excitin’ part!” Merida laughed.

            “All right, everyone.” Aqua smiled as she led the fourteen women, of hearts either pure, strong, or both, back to the Gummi ship. “Let’s go home.”

 

~END~


End file.
